Climbing Silver
by Grand Laise
Summary: In order to win the battle, sacrifices have to be made. Namikaze Sakusen understood this fact better than most. That didn't mean he was any happier with the ones he had to make, but he really hated to lose. Especially to those who threatened his precious people. (OC/AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is my first story I've written, and I've gotten the idea by browsing through other stories I've seen on Fanfiction. Constructive** **criticism is very welcome.  
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 **I don't own Naruto, Kishi does.**

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Minato had been through many painful and terrifying situations.

He'd been stabbed, burned, scalded, and nearly crushed while washing a giant toad. With a rag. He'd faced down entire squadrons of enemy shinobi, had fireballs and boulders as large as the Hokage Tower launched at him, and had accidentally walked into the ladies side of the onsen near his home.

That last one wasn't so bad, since apparently most of the ladies didn't mind him coming in, for some odd reason. Whenever his sensei "accidentally" did the same thing, the bruises he'd left with had stayed for nearly a week.

Everything he'd experienced, however, paled in comparison to the day of Kushina's childbirth.

The screams, the wails, the feeling of _oh my god I'm a dad I'm going to be a dad holy crap holy_ -

"Minato, I swear if you don't get your shit together _right now_ ," his beautiful and terrifying girlfriend snarled, squeezing his hand even tighter (was that a crack he heard?), "I don't care if you have missions to run, you're changing the kid's diapers. Every. _Fucking_. Day."

Did he mention that Kushina had a really nasty mouth while delivering?

"Deep breaths, you need to take deep breaths," Biwako-san said gently, and Minato instinctively found himself following the instructions as well. The Sandaime's wife shot him a dirty look that contrasted greatly with her bedside manner. "Not you, idiot, you focus on containing the seal." Minato almost whimpered. Biwako-sama seemed to make it a point in her life to make Minato's worse after she'd seen the results of the pregnancy test for Kushina. Now, everything that went wrong, in her eyes, was because of him.

Absolutely unfair.

Granted, it _was_ his fault for impregnating his girlfriend, and more importantly, taking the village's jinchuuriki off the active duty roster for 9 whole months during wartime. But it was an accident! He'd gone over to Kushina's house for dinner, and she'd produced a bottle of horrifyingly strong alcohol from her pantry. The next few hours were a little murky, but he'd assumed that they'd had unprotected sex somewhere along the way. Their positions when they woke up next morning, as well as the general state of the bed sheets, only confirmed his suspicions when they had to literally untangle themselves from each other. The results of their night together made themselves known once Kushina started throwing up in the mornings.

Jiraiya-sensei was the one who had sent her the sake that he'd later found out was from one of his detours on a mission. Seriously, the man should have been known for his legendary ability to multitask, rather than his battle presence. Jiraiya-sensei would somehow always have time to mess around at an onsen or a brothel while still completing the objective. It was just absurd. How did he do that?

Even more, why would he even get sake on a detour to send to Kushina, anyway? And he was _not_ jealous that Sensei had disregarded to send him a present as well. It just wasn't like him. Those actions spoke of a plan of sorts. There was a conspiracy here. He just had to find it.

Furrowing his brow, Minato concentrated. _He sent sake to Kushina, who he knows only drinks when she has good friends over since she refused to drink with him,_ he thought, _and the only good friend that has time to visit from her pool is... me... and I'm_ very _sure that he knows that sake makes jinchuuriki horny... Oh hell._

He stiffened, eyes wide. Was that what Sensei was aiming for? He wanted to get his student laid? A groan rose up in his chest from the realization that he might have been played, but Biwako-san narrowed her eyes at his wandering focus, and he snapped back to reality and returned to maintaining the seal. There would be time to feel self-pity later. As well as to interrogate his sensei.

Meanwhile, Kushina was busy trying to convince herself that no matter how much this shit hurt, she was _not_ discovering the sixth circle of hell, she had very capable nurses that knew what they were doing, and her stupid, wonderful boyfriend was here to contain her tenant. It would be a smooth, easy delivery. Easy.

"Keep pushing, Kushina, you're almost there." She resisted the urge to scream right then, from pain or from victory at being _so close_ she didn't really know. The seal was _burning_ like hell, and Kushina had never hated the stupid fox more than in this moment. The contractions were painful enough, but the Kyuubi just had to make things worse. She took a quick peek at Minato, and would have laughed if it didn't hurt so much – he was pale and sweating more than an Akimichi in the summer heat. Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash, who regularly stared down enemy teams without flinching, looked like he was literally about to pass out from the stress of the delivery.

Another contraction, stronger than the rest, nearly made her heave, and Biwako started barking out orders to the other midwives. Something unintelligible, because right then all Kushina really could think about was the fact that _oh god the seal the seal it's weakening._ Her stomach felt like it was on fire, and her whole body began flaming up with the tell-tale signs of demonic chakra. Minato somehow pulled through for her in his panicked state, and the inky lines that had started to spread over her body receded back to the seal on top of her womb, and she found that she could breathe again. _Maybe_ , she thought a little guiltily, _I'll be a bit nicer to him once this is all over. He's gone through enough shit for these past months. Not as much as me, but still._

She still didn't know what she was thinking, keeping the baby. Logically, the best thing to do was to abort it. It was wartime, she was needed to stomp on all the enemy forces, but she couldn't deprive this baby – _her_ baby – of this chance to live. She'd secretly been excited when the test had come out positive (unlike her boyfriend, who had passed out from the shock), because if there was one thing that she'd wanted to be other than the First Female Hokage, it was a mother. She had deeply rooted values, and they told her that it was wrong to murder something that hadn't had a chance to experience anything because it was the logical thing to do. And she wanted it too. She'd pissed off a lot of the council for her (MINATO'S) irresponsible actions, and it had taken her best friends, Mikoto and Tsume, to convince them not to immediately abort it.

Right then, she vowed to work twice as hard to end the war – for her child's sake, and for everyone else as well. It was with a lot of guilt that she realized that she and Minato had a lot of time to make up for being absent on the warfront, which meant that her child wouldn't have his parents around for some time. Poor baby. Hopefully she could get Biwako-san to take care of her baby until she could be back.

First things first, though, was _getting this kid OUT._ It had been in her for much too long, and she had started having dreams of those glorious days past where she didn't have constantly swollen ankles and an enlarged belly.

"Push, Kushina! You're doing just fine, we're almost there." She nearly growled with the effort she put into straining her muscles. Didn't Biwako say that same thing 5 minutes ago? She was a liarrr, and Kushina was _so_ going to get her back later for getting her hopes up early. Except she could really feel it this time. The baby was coming.

Minato, mouth agape, watched in morbid fascination as his crowning baby was pulled out and swathed in blankets by Biwako-san (Gods, how in the world did his girlfriend stretch that much?). It didn't look like a baby - it was more like a red, wrinkly raisin. As if insulted by his observation, the raisin started crying and wailing up a storm, while Biwako-san began running tests with her crew.

"...range chakra, is that norm...?"

"...ould be the 'special' Uzumaki chak..."

Was something wrong? Judging from the confused faces of the midwives, there was something off about his boy's chakra. But the baby was out, he was _here_ , and when Biwako returned with the bundle Minato reached for his beautiful baby boy with trembling hands and –

Was promptly slapped away by an irate Biwako-san. "Mother gets to see the child first, you miserable wretch. Get the seal stabilized already!" He actually did whimper this time. Biwako-san was always going to think of him as a hormonal teen who thought with his dick, wasn't she? Inwardly cursing Jiraiya-sensei, he set to work on fixing the seal. _My Genin would be laughing at me if they saw this_ , he thought glumly.

Kushina was busy panting the stars out of her vision and trying to see her baby at the same time. While one part of her mind screamed victory, the other screamed bloody hell, and she could feel the fox's chakra seeping through her system again as the seal started unraveling.

A large explosion of noise shook the room, and everyone in the room tensed. As dust fell from the rafters above, Minato's gaze turned steely, and he started kneading chakra. The room shook again, the reinforced doors bending and twisting into a shape that was… oddly familiar, actually. What an interesting spiral. One last explosion threw the doors open, seal lines sputtering out, and Minato readied himself, thoroughly forgetting about the seal on his girlfriend. He was ready to jump into action and kill whoever _dared_ to harm his newborn son and his girlfriend. Palming a Hiraishin kunai and extending his senses, he peered through the gaping doors to catch a glimpse of his target and froze. A large mane of white hair jauntily stepped through the wreckage.

"Hey gaki! How did the childbirth go?"

Jiraiya-sensei was _so_ dead. Minato could feel it. This was a certainty, a fact of the universe that could not be challenged. He. Was. Dead.

An unearthly screech sounded throughout the room, and Jiraiya turned as white as his hair as he registered his favorite student, crouched near the bed with a pale face and a kunai, Biwako-obasan, who looked about ready to _murder_ him with that scalpel, and Kushina-chan, with her legs spread open and gaping from childbirth, demonic chakra bubbling from her seal, and her long red hair flying like tails.

He never figured out how she did that, he could only lengthen and strengthen his own hair, not make it fly around like it was a being possessed. Maybe a trick with the Kyuubi's chakra?

 _Wrong time for that right now_ , he thought to himself, _I'm sure Minato can handle the resealing just fine by himself_ , and vanished from his sensei's home in a Shunshin. Or he would have, if Biwako, with all the foresight and knowledge of someone who'd known him nearly all his life, hadn't moved to grab his ear before he could make the hand seals. Minato grabbed his baby boy from her unoccupied arm and reluctantly handed him off to a terrified nurse to stabilize the seal. Jiraiya-sensei was dragged out of the remains of the doors to the private, sealed off room of the Hokage's residence with shouts trailing behind him ( _IDIOT boy using RASENGAN to break into a SEALED OFF ROOM that has a lady giving BIRTH you inconsiderate slob like student like sensei I swear to Kami-)_

Sensei would be ok. Hopefully.

Minato fed chakra to Kushina's stomach to restabilize the seal again, and watched as his exhausted girlfriend received her newborn and cradled him in her arms. Planting a kiss on his tiny forehead, she whispered words that only she, the baby, and Minato could hear.

"You'll be our winning strategy in this war, ok? We'll be thinking of you as we fight, and our Will of Fire will shine so brightly that no one will be able to beat us, 'ttebane."

As the parents were cooing over their new baby, one of the midwives, Taji, smiled at them and began writing up a birth certificate.

 _Parents, Namikaze Minato, 19, and Uzumaki Kushina, 19._

 _Born, December 2, at the Hokage's residence, Konohagakure._

She looked up.

"Have you decided on a name for the child?"

Minato stopped his adoration for just a moment to think and give his answer.

 _Name, Namikaze Sakusen._

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 **Reviews are love! Please tell me what you think. The next chapters will be longer, this is just the beginning. I might play around with the POV's later on, but ultimately I think I will settle for just Sakusen's POV, with necessary interludes from other characters.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hellooo! Here is the next update! This was a little hard for me, because I've been busy with competitions this past week or two. Updates will probably not come out at a set schedule, because I am a horrible time-manager for deadlines, and besides, this is just a little fun project I've been thinking of. Should pick up more momentum as the story goes on and becomes easier and more fun to write. Enjoy!**

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 **I don't own Naruto. Guess who does? But I own little Saku. He's MINE.**

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When Sakusen opened his eyes, he found himself in the clearing again.

Damn. How did he keep ending up here? Not that he was complaining, but he was just curious, in that way that young children usually are.

It was large, barren area surrounded by tall, looming trees. Moonlight from the full moon gleamed off of the snow covering the ground and dusting the trees.

Sakusen could barely remember the last time snow had come in the Land of Fire. This was certainly not his home, that was for sure.

And like last time, and the time before that, and that as well, he heard the howls pierce through the silence of the night. From the dark shadows of the trees, a pack of wolves burst through the clearing. They were on the hunt, and ran so quickly and gracefully that it looked as if they were flying across the snow, feet barely touching the ground.

And when he turned to chase after the pack, he was flying along with them, the cool breeze flowing across his face as he joined them in their midnight hunt.

Sakusen had never felt so elated and free.

* * *

Of course, that was where he had to wake up.

Opening his eyes blearily, Sakusen rubbed the sleep out of them. "It was the good dream too," he groaned, as the last vestiges of that wonderful soaring feeling slipped away. Every time after waking up, he felt like that time Jiji had taken him to the dentist, and the man had put a lead blanket over him. It was hard to get up with it on, especially since it was larger than he was.

That was what getting up felt like after dreaming.

In front of his bathroom mirror (on top of a stool – he was too short to reach the top alone and Asuma teased him relentlessly about it), the 3-year-old Namikaze Sakusen looked at his reflection. Sharp eyes with bright violet irises stared back, on a small, round face framed by messy yellow hair. On each of his cheeks were 3 lines that resembled adorable little whiskers, as Rin called them; in a way, they reminded him of the wolves in his dreams.

He ran a hand through his hair, combing his long spikes back, while trying to remember everything from his run with the pack. He'd had that dream regularly around this time of the month, when there was a full moon when he looked out of his window. It was like that time a stray cat had kept following him after sharing his food with it, always coming back eventually for more. His hand got caught in his tangled locks, and he tried his best to set his hair straight.

Sakusen frowned, face twisting into a cute pout. The spikes went _everywhere,_ and there was no use trying to tame them.

Biwako-baa-chan even claimed that it had to be a new kekkei genkai, since it was just impossible that hair was like that naturally. According to her, Minato, his Tou-san, had the same-ish hairstyle as well. Of the few pictures he'd seen of his father, she was right, but the man's spikes were less… floppy. He giggled thinking of Kakashi's hairstyle; every time he had a chance to run his fingers through the tufts, he could feel the static electricity crackling off his hands. Maybe because he had a natural Lightning Release affinity? Kakashi was weird. And moody.

Hopefully Sakusen wasn't a Lightning user either, he made sure to check for sparks in his hair every morning. He'd hate to have hair that crazy. His own was bad enough.

Only Tou-san's team made it home sometimes after missions. His favorite was Rin, since she always took him out to buy taiyaki when she was free. Tou-san never came home with them, since the Yellow Flash was an important asset on the battlefield. So was Kaa-san, for other reasons. He got the fact that teleporting made you hard to kill and made it easy to kill others, but Kaa-san seemed to be high up for no reason. Not saying that he thought she was bad, of course, but there was literally nothing he knew about her abilities.

Then again, the Record Offices wouldn't let him see any information on her skills for some odd reason, so he didn't really have a good idea of what she could do.

He understood the reasons for them not being able to come home. It was hard, but he did get it. It was like the first lesson he'd been taught when he first learned to play shogi with Jiji – taking away important pieces would leave you vulnerable, and you would lose. Losing was bad, so it made sense that they would be out on the front.

He didn't mind being less of a priority in his parent's minds as much as one thought he would be, but he still missed them a lot. The last memory he could recall of them was Kaa-san's long, beautiful red hair and Tou-san's laugh and vibrant smile. He didn't remember how they acted, so he only had his grandparent's words to go by.

Biwako-baa-chan was dead set on him not taking up his father's "unruly teenage habits," saying that he was "irresponsible" and a "blockhead." Whatever those meant.

Baa-chan said that about his father a lot, for some reason. He got the impression that Tou-san was not on the list of Things that Obaa-san Liked. _Did he offend her in some way?_ he wondered.

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Far away, on the border of the Land of Fire, Namikaze Minato sneezed. The chill that was running down his back right now was familiar, in the way that dredged up unpleasant memories.

"What was that?"

The Iwa squadron he'd been attempting to hide from had heard, and he sighed. _Oh well._

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Downstairs, the Sandaime Hokage was sipping his coffee. Biwako was already over at the hospital managing the morning shift. He should probably do the same soon at his own office, or else the Chuunin on duty there would be like lost little lambs. He snorted. Wartime meant quicker promotions, which often translated to fresh young recruits that were absolutely not ready to be kicked into an office with an actual filing system. That none of them ever learned how to use at all. That was neither good for him nor them, or the war effort.

He turned to take his pipe, but found it already gone. That was quick. His grandson had learned how to muffle his footsteps with chakra, so he'd missed the actual moment of the theft. Not that it meant anything to the Sandaime, of course. The boy was always radiating chakra that could easily be picked up from anywhere within his range when he entered sensing state. Up close like this, it was like he was shining a torch at his Jiji's face.

Chuckling, Hiruzen spoke in a congratulatory tone. "You've gotten much faster than last time. I almost didn't catch you. Almost." A muffled noise of disappointment came from behind the kitchen counter top, and Sakusen crawled out from underneath clutching the pipe in his hand.

They had made it a game of sorts for Sakusen to sneak around and take stuff without his noticing. Already, he was living up to his namesake. The boy had waited until the Sandaime's head was tipping back with the motion of drinking from his cup to scramble under the table and snatch the pipe. He'd give him that one, it was a good try. That chakra presence was just going to be a damning factor in his stealth training, though.

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, cup halfway to his lips. Now that he thought about it, for a moment, he'd felt Sakusen's chakra dull very slightly, barely enough to be noticeable. Suppressing was a skill that normally had to be taught. If Sakusen had felt a need to dampen his signature, it was probably because he'd compared his own signature to other ninja in the village and felt the difference in size.

It wasn't a perfect suppression, not by a long shot. He quirked his lips slightly. If the boy could ever manage even an 80% suppression within his lifetime, that would be quite the accomplishment in itself. But there was no mistaking the fact that the signature was dampened down.

The boy was probably a sensor, he concluded with an air of finality. You didn't spend decades surviving this long as a ninja and not learn anything. There was a reason he was called the Professor. He would probably assign someone to check for certain later.

"I can never win at this," Sakusen pouted, returning the pipe to the table and brushing off the dust from his pants. The boy was so much like his parents. There was Minato in that sharp eye shape, hair, and calm analytical ability, but his violet irises and occasional loud outburst were all Kushina.

"Nonsense. You're only 3, after all. You've done very well for your age." _Understatement of the year,_ Hiruzen thought dryly, _the fact that an Uzumaki managed even a partial suppression with no formal training is a complete miracle._

Sakusen puffed up a little hearing that. He would have to beat that growing attitude out of him. Arrogance was a big problem in the field, unless you could back it up. And Hiruzen was not taking any chances of losing his boy because he overestimated his own abilities. Enma could probably do it within one training session. It had certainly worked with Jiraiya, anyway. Mostly.

"Can you take me to the weapons shop today? Or teach me a cool new jutsu? I've been good, right? You promised!"

Ah. Hiruzen nearly winced, choking on his freshly smoking pipe. He had promised to take Sakusen to the weapons shop later, hadn't he? He was a terrible person for forgetting his promises so easily, especially to his grandson.

Not that it was completely his fault, of course. The Hokage was on the top of the list of Busiest People During Wartime, and he knew that battle strategies and meetings awaited him at the Hokage Tower. He barely had time to even care for the boy. A bored Uzumaki proved to be a menace in an office stacked with papers, which meant that Sakusen was usually left to care for himself at home.

He felt guilty for leaving the boy alone when even his parents were gone. There was no mistaking that sparkle in Sakusen's eyes whenever he looked at Hiruzen. To Sakusen, his Jiji was something greater than man, the best of the best of ninja, able to do anything and everything. Hiruzen hated to have to destroy that image of himself by not being able to just be there for him, like he had done with Asuma and Akane. His current relationship with his sons was rocky, at best.

But, not being able to stick around was something that couldn't be helped; he had priorities as the Hokage, and the village needed him more than his sons and his adoptive grandson did, as much as it pained him to admit it. Hopefully, Sakusen would understand. Shadow clones weren't an option either, they wouldn't last long enough for the whole day to watch over the boy.

Plus, he'd get a splitting migraine if he tried. And Biwako would be on his case, and who would complete Konoha's paperwork then? Shikaku?

Most certainly not. Other people had secret stashes of alcohol or munchies in their drawers. Shikaku had a secret stash of _pillows._

Sakusen saw the apologetic look forming on his Jiji's face, and quickly interrupted. "Actually, it's fine, Jiji. I think I can get it myself. Can I go down to the training grounds?"

He took back his previous thought. He did not deserve this wonderful child's understanding. He was terrible. Terrible. Hiruzen resolved later to clear some time to take Sakusen to that weapons shop and teach him some basic jutsu.

"That is fine. Just remember to be careful," he sighed, the wrinkles on his face becoming more pronounced. Hiruzen could trust Sakusen to look after himself. He was more mature than any he'd seen at that age, and besides, he'd assign someone to tail him.

That didn't mean he wasn't allowed to worry. Although no one else other than those present at the delivery was supposed to know about the birth of another Uzumaki, you could never be too cautious. They were prime targets for sticking Bijuu inside. Not to mention that their skill in sealing was unparalleled. Kumo would be halfway down their mountain already if this information had been leaked.

Sticky fingered bastards.

Now, who would be good with kids _and_ teaching from his active roster?

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The Third Training Ground was Sakusen's favorite place to be at. Not only did it have trees to climb up on and water to swim in, the clearing with the 3 stumps resembled the clearing from his dream. He sat down on top of a stump, opening a pilfered scroll from Jiji's library (hopefully he wouldn't mind too much) and began reading.

Sakusen enjoyed reading the most, especially from his grandfather's library. There were layers and layers of scrolls detailing the theory of chakra, hand seals, and jutsu that would make the Research and Development Department drool. Not that he understood everything in there, but it was still interesting to read, and he'd learned a lot by poring over all the scrolls.

Hand seals, for instance. They required a lot of dexterity, especially for performing jutsu quickly. Little kid muscles did not like the workout he gave his fingers at all. But they weren't hard to form, as he discovered, because the flow of chakra naturally attracted the tenketsu on his hands and fingers together. Sort of like sticking magnets together, you just had to guide the magnets correctly to each other. The different positions altered the flow of chakra, making it easier to perform jutsu of different natures. Some people mastered altering their flow to such an extent that jutsu required less hand seals or none at all to perform.

That wasn't all, though.

The first time he'd tried a Fire Release Sarutobi hidden technique, the results had been spectacularly explosive, making him black out in the process. He'd woken up to a burning training ground, and had run home in a panic with soot all over him. Apparently, Fire Release was not his forte. And Hiden techniques had to be taught from one to another, so that may have been another reason why he'd failed.

Sakusen tried very hard to ignore the glaring fact that it would take years just to gain enough control to use that kickass fire dragon jutsu, especially for him. Control didn't seem to be his strong suit, but he never really tried before.

Hand seals were only one part of jutsu. The other half was chakra control. Which he was trying to improve right now, with something called the tree-walking exercise.

"Hum... it's not hard to understand, at least." At least not as hard as the jutsu on that big scroll that he'd found in Jiji's office. The stuff on there was pure insanity. At least some of it. He'd memorized the stuff he could understand, he was good with stuff like that.

Tree-walking was basically using chakra to stick to the tree. Or some other surface. But Konoha had a bunch of trees, so he'd start there. It couldn't be that hard, he reasoned, because nearly everyone learned how to do this. He could do it too.

Making the Ram seal, he channeled his chakra and placed his foot on the tree.

* * *

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of spinning red eyes watched his progress. Uchiha Shisui looked on with interest at the small boy now attempting to start tree-walking. He let out a small chuckle. The kid was cute, trying to learn a skill like that already before entering the academy.

He shifted his legs to keep the blood flowing through them, nearly falling from the branch he was camping out on. Sandaime-sama had assigned him to guard the kid, which he didn't know how to feel about. On one hand, the Hokage himself had requested him to take care of the boy. On the other, it was basically a babysitting mission. Should he be honored or insulted? Shisui shrugged. He was getting paid, at least, and that new tanto that Neko-baa had on display was looking fine as hell.

The only warning he had as to what happened next was a blinding flare of bright purple chakra coming from the kid's leg.

A large crackling sound ripped through the clearing, and Shisui blanched as the tree that the kid was trying to climb literally _toppled over._

He started panicking. What was the kid _doing_? How was he destroying trees like that? Was he dead? Oh dear god, did the tree _fall_ on him? Why were there no screams? He definitely would have screamed if his foot had crumpled a tree like that.

Sakusen was not dead nor screaming. He was busy trying to blink out the stars from his vision. Dazedly, he remembered some kind of law that he'd found in the library - every action has an equal reaction? Or something. He really couldn't remember at the moment. Although he really did wish that he'd used less chakra, because the first step had sent him rocketing back to the other side. His foot was burning from shoving all that chakra out at once. That was a bad idea.

Well. At least he knew he had to use less of it now.

Shisui was still gawking at the tree. The kid had blown himself clear across to the other side of the field with his _feet_ , which must have hurt like hell. Hopefully he was okay, but Shisui was starting to have serious doubts about letting the boy train by himself.

Dang. That kid had a _crap_ ton of chakra, if what he'd seen before the explosion had indicated. Where did it all come from? The kid was a pint-sized brat, who should not be able to hold that much. There was no way he was letting the kid train by himself after seeing that. The Hokage would probably not be happy with him if he dragged a comatose child into the hospital. Didn't the Hokage's wife work there too? Well, then he would be double-fucked. He was interfering.

Of course, he had orders from Hokage-sama to watch Sakusen, which implied just observing from a distance, but he hadn't said anything about not participating in his training – maybe the Hokage wanted him to read between the lines? That was probably it, he decided with a nod, and flickered down in a Shunshin.

Sakusen was busy checking his foot and his head for damage after hobbling over to the stump. Grumbling, he was wrapping his foot up when he felt the familiar tingle of chakra whoosh behind him. Normally he needed to spin his chakra a certain way to feel other presences (he'd discovered that on accident while at home trying to activate his chakra coils), so it was probably a jutsu that someone was using behind him. So he did what anyone else would have done, and springboarded off his stump to face his attacker.

Well, that was the plan. But he forgot about his sore foot, and instead face-planted the ground.

Shisui watched, surprised, as the boy did an amusing swan-dive straight into the grass. So he _was_ a sensor. No way would a pre-academy student know that he'd landed otherwise. Hokage-sama would be happy to hear his suspicions confirmed.

"Who are you?" the blond-haired boy asked, rolling over to spit dirt out of his mouth with a suspicious glare. Straight and to the point. He liked this kid. Shisui smiled. "I'm Uchiha Shisui. You look like you're having trouble with that control exercise. You need to put _way_ less chakra into it."

Sakusen blinked. That was not what he had expected, of all things. This curly-haired boy that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere (how did he do that? There was definitely nothing behind him when he'd sat down) was suddenly proffering help. He wasn't dumb enough to refuse heavily-needed guidance, but this boy didn't seem that much older than him. Obviously, the natural thing to do was to voice his doubts.

"Can _you_ do it? You don't look much older than me. How old are you?"

The Uchiha deflated a little. He got enough crap from the older shinobi for being a 6-year-old genin, now someone younger than him was questioning his rank too. Didn't these guys see the headband? He wanted a neon strap for it now, and maybe flashing lights to go around the plate.

"Actually, I'm a genin. I'm taking the Chunin exams next year too. And I'm 6."

Sakusen wow-ed. That was actually pretty impressive, from what he knew. "Genin. At 6? I thought you stayed in the Academy for 4 years. Did you enter when you were 2? Or maybe you skipped years?"

Ooh, the boy was sharp too. Sort of like Itachi, but with more spunk. "That's right. I entered at 5 years old, and graduated at 6 some time ago. I only spent a year there because I mastered all the chakra exercises and knowledge tests early on." He put extra emphasis on the _early on_. "What's your name?"

Oh yeah, Biwako-baa-chan had told him it was polite to introduce himself to people he didn't know. "I'm Sakusen. Can you please help me with this chakra control exercise?" He made sure to turn on his pleading puppy eye face. From experience, it had usually gotten him what he wanted.

Taking a glance at the scroll, Shisui frowned. It was an older scroll, but still had all the basics and essentials. There was absolutely no reason for Sakusen to exude that much chakra for his first attempt. Sakusen might not have been as bright as he thought. He cleared his throat.

"Watch me. I don't blast out chakra like you first did, I control the amount that comes out and I keep it there. That's why it's called _control._ "

Shisui demonstrated on the nearest tree by making a half-Ram and walking straight up it. Looking back down at the blond mop of hair, Sakusen's eyes were wide. "That's pretty cool! I'm gonna try too. Watch!"

How cute. He was sort of like Itachi, with that strange mature aura they both carried around and that sharp mind. Shisui was going to arrange for them to meet sometime. He had a feeling they would get along well. Time to switch shifts with the next babysitter, he'd come back at lunch to give some pointers. There was no way this kid would be able to have it down by then.

* * *

Tree walking was _hard_. By lunchtime, there were bits of tree bark debris scattered everywhere on the ground. Sakusen was panting, but he'd gotten most of the concept down. The idea was to pad the feet with a certain amount of chakra to stick like a magnet, as his scroll explained it. Too little, and the magnet wouldn't be strong enough to hold. Too much chakra, and you got pushed away.

Or in Sakusen's case, blown away. The problem was, he understood the concept perfectly. Shisui thought he was stupid, he could tell, but he actually got everything. But every time he stepped up and channeled chakra like that, it built up like a blocked pipe, and he could barely control what came out.

There was something he was doing wrong. He had lots of chakra, but this was crazy. There should be a way to slow it down. There was always a way.

Going back over everything again with a frown, Sakusen thought about it again and again. Well... chakra flow was controlled with hand seals too, right? What if he changed the hand seal? Did it have to be the Ram seal? Why not others? Shisui had done half-ram, so it would make sense that different ninja used different seals, right?

Shisui was back up in the tree now, watching on his stomach, arms and legs hanging down. There was literally no hope for the kid. He had little to no experience with working with chakra, so he would probably have to wait until he became genin, or at the very least, was taught better by his instructors.

Then the kid did something that made his jaw drop even more than when he'd blown up the tree.

Sakusen was cycling through the different hand seals, experimenting. Tiger and Dog felt worse than Ram did, and it gravitated towards his stomach, and he'd had to take a second or two to shove the chakra back into his coils. Snake was much better, but still. He could do better than that. Tenketsu could line up in literally a million different positions, and he knew there were other seals than the basic 12. Playing around with his hand positions, he fiddled with his fingers, and then...

"Oh. _There_ we go."

It was nothing special - just literally placing the palms of his hands together. Like a clap. But in this position, chakra ran freely through his body without interruptions, without making pent-up energy. He could literally _feel_ the flow - it was sort of like the pre-sensing state mode. From there, it was easy to concentrate and skim some chakra off the cycle to guide to his feet.

Switching back to Ram on an impulse, he felt with absolute clarity the chakra he'd sent to his feet being sucked to the bottom of his sandals. He couldn't absorb it, but he could attract it. This was the ratio he'd discovered a while back, but could never get. Holding his breath, he put his foot to the trunk...

 _And he stuck._

The whoop of joy shocked Shisui out of his daze. He... he took back every negative thing he'd thought about Sakusen's intelligence. The boy was a genius. No doubt now. What Sakusen did was gain a complete understanding of hand seals and chakra flow that even Jounin didn't have, and use that to change the rules around to his advantage. Persevering with one method was one thing, but understanding the method and changing it? That was working smarter, not harder.

Words could not describe how shocked he still was at seeing a 3-year-old do that. And he was used to seeing the usual Uchiha prodigy do stuff that no one had seen before.

Guiltily, Shisui reevaluated his thought process. Had he been judging the boy based on what Uchiha genin typically accomplished? That was a little unfair of him. Sometimes, that potential needed to be brought out. And he knew exactly the kind of friend Sakusen would need to bring his out.

 _Well... it's still within mission parameters... and besides, this is good training for when I need to make judgement calls in the future._

* * *

"Ow, ow," Sakusen muttered as he trudged toward the food stands. While he had gotten the idea, it took a while to learn how to naturally alter the flow to be able to unstick from the tree to take the next step. He'd fallen about 10 feet up trying to perfect his technique. The fall had left him with some bruises, but luckily it wasn't anything serious. There was a strange pile of leaves that had broken most of his descent that he didn't think was there before, but who was he to argue?

Besides, if he had come home hurt more badly, Biwako-baa-chan would give him a terrible scolding, and then yell at Jiji for letting him train alone. And then he would have to go back to the office. Or worse, the _hospital._ Sakusen didn't like that place. It smelled of disinfectant, and the nurses wouldn't let him run around in the hallways.

A growl came from his stomach. He was starving, and he wanted food. Now.

What should he get? There was always so much to choose from in the market district. They had food stands with yakitori and takoyaki, and those delicious taiyaki that the tea house had. Sakusen nearly drooled thinking about all the food he could… buy…

Ah crap. He'd left his wallet at his house, hadn't he?

 _Of course I would forget my money,_ he thought a little crossly. Now he would have to run back to the Hokage's residence to get his wallet, and that was nearly halfway across the village. And he was _hungry._ He felt tempted to let out a despondent wail, but checked himself. He was a big boy now, and big boys didn't cry. But big boys didn't forget their money either, he reminded himself. Now what was he going to do?

"Forgot to bring money?"

He remembered that voice! Sakusen looked up to see Shisui perched like a bird on top of one of the stands, waving with a grin on his face. Great. Now someone had seen him mess up.

"I did… I'll have to run back to get it. Hey! Can you teach me that jutsu you used? Y'know, that cool one where you moved really fast?"

"Sorry, Saku-chan," Shisui said back (that was an adorable pout that Sakusen had, he'd be sure to keep using that nickname), "the Shunshin isn't as easily taught as the tree-walking. You'll need more than a couple of hours to get it down. How about you come over to our district? I know someone that makes really great food."

Sakusen shifted, uncomfortably. "Is that ok? It feels a little rude to do that."

He'd never really gotten invites to other friend's houses. He actually didn't have very many other friends, other than Obito, Kakashi, and Rin, because they were the ones who came over to visit the most. He did know, however, that normally you sent word to someone before meeting them. That was what Jiji did when he scheduled appointments with other people. This couldn't be that different, right?

"Nonsense," Shisui snorted. The kid just probably wasn't used to other people, considering the fact that Hokage-sama assigned guards to tail him around. That kind of attention tended to scare away the other children's parents, and subsequently, their kids. "She'd be happy to have you around. The person I'm taking you to knows your mom, too, I think."

That got his attention. "Really? Who? Who is it?"

The Uchiha boy smiled _._ "Uchiha Mikoto. She's my clan head's wife. You'll love her!"

* * *

The Uchiha District wasn't a very bad place to be in. There were mostly civilians left over, with the occasional stern-faced ninja on patrol now that the war had occupied most of the upper rank's time. Shisui guided Sakusen through the confusing mishmash of identical, traditional houses, finally stopping at one compound that was larger than the others. By now, Sakusen was a little nervous. He'd just remembered Jiji's warning to not follow strange people around. But Shisui wasn't strange, right?

Any doubts he had vanished when Shisui knocked on the door of the main compound, and a beautiful, raven-haired woman answered. Her eyes, which shone like dark obsidian, lit up at the sight of the blond haired boy, and a gentle smile formed on her face.

"Ah, hello! You must be Sakusen!" she exclaimed happily. Ushering in both Sakusen and Shisui, who looked just a tad bit miffed at being ignored, the woman led them to a living room, her glittering hair flowing behind her.

"I've heard so much about you from Sandaime-sama. You've been training hard, right? I tried to set some time aside for you and Itachi to meet up and spend some time together, since you don't seem to interact too much with others, but all village Jounin are busy, and coming home to take care of little Itachi and Fugaku takes up enough time as is. Would you like some tea?"

Sakusen accepted politely, listening as the woman rambled. "Excuse me, I heard you knew my mother?"

Mikoto stopped talking and smiled again. He didn't waste any time fooling around. How so like Kushina. She missed her. "That's right. We've been friends since our academy days. Do you remember meeting her?"

He shook his head. "Only bits and pieces. Like her hair. And I remember Tou-san's smile. But that's it."

The woman laughed. "Her hair was always one of the more memorable things about her, along with her attitude and her appetite." She grinned fondly, as she recalled her academy days. "Kushina was a boisterous girl back in the academy. On her first day there, she was being teased by other kids for her hair color and for being a foreigner. She beat everyone up so badly, they named her 'The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.'"

Shisui chose this moment to speak up, setting down his half-empty teacup. "Pardon me for asking, Mikoto-san, but who are his parents?"

"My dad is Namikaze Minato, and my mom is Uzumaki Kushina. I didn't know she was a foreigner?" This was the first time he'd heard about the foreigner part. He missed Shisui perk up at the mention of his dad's name.

"Yes, she came from Uzushiogakure when she was a child. Her home was destroyed during the 2nd Shinobi War, though." Here Mikoto's face took on a sad expression, which made Sakusen want to go over and hug her. That was probably levels of inappropriate, though, seeing how she was a clan head's wife. Remember politics. Don't offend big clan members.

"Kushina always talked about going back to honor her family members, but could never get the courage to see what remained of her homeland. She started saying that she had a new family here in Konoha, and that past memories were best left undisturbed."

"I can't imagine what it would be like to learn that your home was destroyed," remarked Shisui with a small frown. His teacup was empty now. He really enjoyed his tea. "It must have been hard for her. Maybe you can go later when you're older for your Kaa-san, Sakusen."

Sakusen nodded. "Maybe. I think I would like that."

The door to the house opened, and a quiet "Tadaima" came from the hallway. "Okaeri, Itachi. Bring the groceries to the kitchen, please," said Mikoto, hurrying to the dining table. Sakusen was reminded of his hunger, which had lessened somewhat, but still gnawed away at his stomach.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, accompanied by the sound of crinkling plastic bags, and a young boy about Sakusen's age emerged, carrying an armful of groceries. He had pronounced tear troughs stretching down his face, with long black hair and onyx eyes. He didn't look surprised to see Shisui and Sakusen, but his eyes still looked curiously at the blond Namikaze.

"This is Sakusen, Itachi. Sakusen, this is my son, Itachi. Would you all like to wait and talk outside until the food is done?" asked Mikoto, busy transporting the contents of the bags to the stovetop.

"Of course, Kaa-san," replied Itachi politely. Shisui led the way to a screen door that opened up to a patio and a fish pond. Once everyone was outside, the two youngest boys regarded each other with varying levels of interest. Eventually, Sakusen decided to make the first move, and stuck his hand out to Itachi. "Nice to meet ya. I'm Namikaze Sakusen."

Itachi took the proffered hand with a small smile. "Likewise. I'm Uchiha Itachi. Are you training to become a shinobi as well?"

"That's right!" Sakusen nodded proudly. "I want to become a great ninja like my parents!"

The boy was nice, decided Itachi, and not wholesomely unpleasant or obnoxious to be around. He offered more of his friendship in the only way he knew how.

"Would you like to train together until Kaa-san is finished cooking?"

Sakusen's smile threatened to split his face in half.

Shisui smiled. His plan had worked! Itachi had a friend! Thank goodness they were both around the same level of weird for this to work. Only weird kids actually enjoyed training this young.

* * *

Back at home, Sakusen talked animatedly with his grandparents over dinner.

"And then! And then! Itachi showed me how to throw kunai and shuriken! And I finished the tree-walking exercise! But Itachi already knew how to do it, so the next time we meet, Shisui's going to teach us how to _walk on water!_ It was so cool! And –"

Biwako and Hiruzen shared a smile. The venerable Sandaime was cheering inside. His plan had worked! Sakusen had a friend! He knew he could count on Shisui to notice the similarities that the socially awkward Uchiha boy and his isolated grandson allegedly shared, according to Mikoto. Maybe he wouldn't be so lonely while everyone was gone after all.

"I heard around the hospital that Sakusen's parents will be moving away from the front lines and toward the rear, Hiruzen?" interrupted Biwako, snapping Hiruzen out of his thoughts.

"How did you hear that around the hospital, of all places?" asked Hiruzen. The stuff that went around - you'd think that the hospital was for gossiping, not healing. All news somehow arrived there.

Biwako waved her hand. "Word gets around quick among hospital staff. Does this mean that Minato and Kushina will have an easier time coming home?"

Sakusen's eyes grew wide. He could see his parents again?

Hiruzen quickly interjected before the boy could get too excited. "They will be moving closer to the village and away from the heart of fighting, along with several squadrons, but that won't be for a couple of months. It will be a progressive movement, so not too soon. But you will be able to see them again. I promise. This week, I'll be sure to take you to the shop, too, ok?"

That night, Sakusen went to sleep happier than he'd been in a while. And once again, he dreamed of the wolves bounding through the snowy clearing as the light of the moon shone down upon him.

* * *

 **I can't say I'm too pleased with this chapter, because I feel like there's a lack of dialogue, inner thoughts, actions etc. That may just be my inability to understand what goes on inside a 3-year-old's head, though. I will try to improve for future chapters. And this may just be me (prob not) but I feel like I'm changing the tone along the way. Have to keep everything consistent. This is hard.**

 **Also, Itachi is here!**

 **And if any of you were wondering, Sakusen means "military strategy" or something of the sort in Japanese. Thought it had a nice ring to it, and it fit my character's style.**

 **I can't wait until little Sakusen grows up, so he can have actual thoughts that I can write without feeling weird. Because if a kid thinks like an adult, that would be creepy. Unless you're Itachi. I guess that's why SI's are nice to write.**

 **Thank you to all who have viewed and followed this story. Again, reviews are welcome! Tell me what's good, what's bad, what you guys like or didn't like? Oh, and have a Happy New Year! My present to y'all.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hellooo, third chapter here. Also. I GOT MY FIRST REVIEWWW! Thank you Awkane for reviewing! I have a steadily increasing amount of views on this story, which is exciting. Again, this is my first story, so I don't know much of what to expect. Winter Break is ending soon. Where did all the time go?**

* * *

 **Don't own. Not mine.**

* * *

"Again!"

Sakusen grimaced, settling back into his stance. His hands and muscles ached something awful, and he was sure that blisters would be forming soon. This was strike 99 for today's practice using the bokken. Just one more to go.

When Jiji had taken him to the weapons shop a couple of months earlier, as promised, he'd gotten the usual supply of kunai and shuriken that most ninja used while out in the field. While his grandfather was buying, he'd taken the chance to run through the aisles of assorted weapons. The rack of swords had caught his eye, and he'd reached out to grab one, knocking the whole supply over by mistake.

So he was a _little_ excited and hasty. But he was a kid, in a room with sharp, pointy objects. What else could one expect?

Sakusen had immediately taken a shine to the various swords, and the shop-owner and Jiji had found him enthusiastically hacking away sections of the wooden dummies with different blades. While Jiji had been mortified, the shop-owner had laughed loudly, and proclaimed that he saw talent in the boy. He'd been happy when he'd walked out of the store with a shiny new wakizashi at his side. He'd wanted a katana, of course, or maybe even an odachi, but the wakizashi and the tanto were the only ones that fit him at his current size. The tanto was too small, in his opinion, so he stuck with a two-foot long tempered wakizashi.

Now, he was starting to slightly regret that decision.

Haori-sensei glared at him, hands on her hips. It might have been scarier if she wasn't wheelchair bound, but she made up for it by leaking Killing Intent into the air. "Your form is too tight. Loosen up! Hands have to be lower! You're gonna die on the battlefield at this rate!"

Gritting his teeth, Sakusen did as he was told, shifting his stance until he was more comfortable and sliding his hands down the wooden sword. The woman was a demon. Worse than Enma, even, and Enma once threw him off of the tallest tree in the village to force him to learn how to swing.

Gekko Haori was a prestigious swords-woman who was well known for her kenjutsu skills in Konoha. She had long, messy brown hair that she kept out of her face with her headband. Her flak jacket was unzipped, showing off her scandalously low tank top with mesh underneath. Despite her short stature, she was fiercely competent with a sword. Jiji had appointed her as his kenjutsu sensei after she'd sustained injuries on the field that would keep her in the village for the next couple of months. Despite her protests, the Sandaime had insisted that she would be a wonderful sensei, if her son's success in the art said anything.

This just made her angry, and Sakusen knew that she was unleashing all her pent-up frustrations on him during their training sessions. She wouldn't let him even touch the wakizashi for the first few months, saying that training with form was much more important to start off with. Which nearly killed Sakusen inside. He like his sharp stuff, dammit.

Raising the bokken over his head, he brought it down on the dummy with all the strength that his sore arm muscles could muster. The wood bounced off the shoulder of the straw doll like it was made of rubber, and Sakusen collapsed in exhaustion, moaning in pain. He was done for the day.

He did not see the sadistic smirk that his instructor wore.

"Good effort, gaki! But you're still too tight! Your strikes have no strength in them! How are you expecting to cut through someone if you can't even make a dent in a dummy?"

The only answer that she got was a snore. Haori's eyes twitched. Hayate was never this whiny or pathetic when she'd trained him. What happened to the Uzumaki constitution that he was supposed to have? Weren't they supposed to be tough as nails? This kid had fallen _asleep_ in the middle of a fucking lecture!

Her face twisted up with a screech that sent the birds flying. "What do you think you're doing? Snoozing when I'm giving you pointers on how to do better! And do you think you're done? You still have those laps to run! Swordsmen need to be quick! My mother runs faster than you, and she's _dead_ _!_ Get up and start moving!"

If there was a hell, then he'd stab himself with his own sword if he hadn't found it already.

* * *

When he arrived at the lake, Sakusen dropped like a sack of rocks onto the pier with a sigh.

"Tough session? I told you that you shouldn't have gone jumping through the trees all day yesterday. You burned yourself out."

"Shut up, Itachi," Sakusen ground out to the smug-faced Uchiha. "It wasn't that. I stayed up all night reading those fuinjutsu scrolls that Jiji has hidden away. I got sleepy and Haori-sensei made me do a hundred push-ups for not listening." He rubbed his sore biceps, wincing at the memory.

Turning his head, he got a good look at Itachi, sitting on the deck a couple of feet away. They met nearly every single day after Shisui had introduced them together several months ago. Sakusen was now a fairly common sight in the Uchiha clan compound, and he knew most of the civilians there by heart. It didn't hurt that most of them were excellent bakers, and Sakusen could clear out the entire stock of taiyaki that the bakery had on a good day. Itachi could do the same thing to their dango supply.

The lake stretched out to the very edge of the forest. It was their usual meeting place, and had been since Shisui had nearly drowned them here trying to show them how to water-walk. Itachi had gotten it first, like always. Sakusen required a little more time, but eventually had gotten it down to the point where modifying the hand seals wasn't necessary. For an Uzumaki, his control was phenomenal.

Itachi held out a bento to Sakusen.

"Kaa-san made your favorite. And yes, I've got your taiyaki."

"Sweet! Hold up first."

Stripping out of his sweaty shirt and pants, Sakusen rolled off the pier's edge into the lake like a seal. The cold water was always a relief after Haori-sensei's training sessions. He sank to the very bottom, vigorously running his hands through his shoulder-length sticky hair. Gross.

Itachi laughed, opening his own lunch. It was like a ritual for them now. Meet up, Sakusen jumps into the lake, and they eat and train. He was glad that they had been introduced to each other. Eyeing his food with a suspicious glance (sometimes Kaa-san tried to sneak healthy foods into his onigiri, which should have been a crime), he started eating, only to stop after the first couple of bites. That was an awfully long time to remain underwater. Was Sakusen trying to use the air filtering jutsu again?

He knew this feeling. Oh _crap_ , he remembered, and barely had enough time to sweep up the lunches and retreat before a burst of water showered the place he'd originally been sitting at. Glaring at the soggy yellow-haired lump strewn out over the pier, Itachi briefly considered spiking his taiyaki with pepper the next time he brought lunch.

 _What an ass. He could have warned me first._

Sakusen blinked at the empty space where his friend used to occupy, then looked up with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, hehe... used too much chakra."

Sighing, Itachi set the lunches down again where they wouldn't get wet. Sakusen had insisted that it was just chakra he was sending out to make him blast out of the lake, but Itachi was sure there was some Water Release involved. Maybe that was his natural affinity?

Either way, Itachi wouldn't be saving his friend's lunch the next time he did that.

Sakusen dug into the food, frowning. He'd been trying to mess around with the principles of the water-walking technique, which was similar in concept to the tree-walking technique. Instead of a fixed amount of chakra, though, you had to emit a constant stream of chakra to support yourself above the surface of the water. If you made the stream too strong, as Sakusen had usually done at first, then the water would be blown away, and you would sink. But under water, Sakusen could propel himself like a fish. It had become a control exercise in itself, and another game of sorts as well - to see how much chakra would be needed to blast one up to the pier's edge. Finding that amount was the problem, though. Water was harder to work with than trees, because it kept changing.

Itachi glanced at Sakusen. He had his thinking face on again, and it was obvious that he was onto something because his food hung halfway out of his mouth. Sakusen had amazing zoning out powers. Too bad he would never get to use them while Itachi was around.

"Is the food bad? What's the problem?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Sakusen quickly gulped his meat down.

"No, no, it's really good-"

"Then hurry up and finish. Don't let your food get cold. And it's rude to zone out like that."

That was harsh. Itachi was much too well-mannered to get anything at by him. And he thought Biwako-baa-chan was bad.

Pouting, Sakusen finished his bento quickly, diving for the taiyaki next. Uchiha Issen-san made the best taiyaki in Konoha, and the blond-haired boy was a regular at the Uchiha bakery shop. They loved him, and his service.

Itachi cleared his throat, catching Sakusen's attention mid-chew. "Tou-san said he'd going to take me to the battlefield soon. The war is nearly over, but he wants me to see what it's like. I'll be leaving tomorrow, so remember to buy your own lunch. Sorry I won't be around to train with you."

Sakusen almost dropped his taiyaki. "What!" he shouted. Itachi grimaced, holding his hand up to his ear. Sakusen was really loud when he wanted to be. Kaa-san said it was an Uzumaki thing? Apparently, Kushina-oba was worse. Sakusen was still reeling, waving his arms around.

"How come you get to see the fighting? I want to go, too! Can he take me with you? Please? Pleeease?"

Itachi shook his head, watching the flailing taiyaki with a sharp eye. He would not be getting hit in the face with a hot pastry if it broke off. "Tou-san says that this is a big exception he's making, just for me. He can't be responsible for someone else."

Sakusen looked down, disappointed. His taiyaki was still miraculously intact.

It made sense, though. If anything happened to Fugaku's son while he was out on the battefield, there wouldn't be any big repercussions. Because Itachi was _his_ son. Only Mikoto would get angry. No one else would really care.

On the other hand, if Fugaku brought someone else not related to him, especially someone that was under the Sandaime's jurisdiction, well... He would have to take responsibility for any injuries that Sakusen sustained. As well as face the political consequences. Angering the Hokage was probably not a smart idea for any clan head.

Still, Sakusen _wanted_ to go. It wasn't fair that Itachi got all the fun. And besides, he was getting better with his sword, too! His form was pretty good, and he could cut through dummies all day. He scuffed his foot against the dirt sadly.

Uh oh. Itachi knew that face. If Sakusen started thinking, then bad things would start to happen. Drastic measures needed to be taken, and _now._

Whipping out another taiyaki from his bag (kept for emergencies like this), Itachi stuffed it in the other boy's mouth, earning himself a cry of protest. "Cheer up. You'll get to see the war soon, too, you know. It's not like we're ever going to not see any fighting in _our_ lifetimes," he said, putting more emphasis on the _our._ The war was rumored to be ending soon, but it never really went away, if the history of the Great Nations said anything. No doubt there would be another war later.

Sakusen wasn't listening. Itachi's taiyaki attack had been a little too late. Already, his mind was going a mile a minute. He didn't want to wait, not really. And if Sakusen wanted something, if he was determined enough, he usually got it. It was just a matter of _how_ he was going to trail a squadron made up of arguably the most elite ninja in Konoha, including their clan head.

Time to hit his library. That usually had all the answers he needed. And he still had a couple of days. Sakusen had time.

* * *

Sitting in his chair at the Hokage's Tower, Hiruzen watched his grandson through his crystal ball with a frown. He hadn't been the same after coming back that one lunchtime. More determined, more focused. He would have chalked it up to a fight with the Uchiha clan head's son, if not for the fact that the scrolls Sakusen was studying had more to do with the Uchiha clan and their Sharingan. Itachi had not awakened it yet, of that he knew.

His grandson did have a certain thirst for knowledge. Maybe it was just that. Just like one of his students, in fact.

A little disturbed at the parallels, Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe. Orochimaru was certainly nothing like Sakusen. Their upbringings were slightly similar, but Sakusen's parental figures still existed. Just, weren't around.

Kushina would be fighting close to the inner outpost soon, actually. Minato, from what he had heard, had needed time to recover after his now-legendary massacre of the enemy forces, and the death of his student. Hopefully when the war was over, everyone would be returning. Everyone left alive, that is.

The Sandaime's grip tightened on his pen. Uchiha Obito did not deserve to die. From what Hiruzen remembered, he was a kind and compassionate boy, loved by nearly all in Konoha. News of his death hadn't even been made public yet, since it was so recent. He was a future contender for the Hokage's seat, with all the love he held to his village. Sakusen would be greatly saddened when he found out.

Returning his gaze to his grandson, Hiruzen was about to do his daily surveillance of the village when a Chuunin barged into his room. He rubbed his head, waiting for the inevitable headache. He needed a break. Yes, that's what he would do. Take a well-deserved break from village work after the war. He was done with the deaths and fighting and war. A new Hokage would have to be appointed soon, anyway.

Now, what was the issue _this_ time? If it was the broken coffee machine again, Hiruzen would break his desk.

* * *

"The Sharingan is the kekkei genkai of the Uchiha Clan. It allows the user to see chakra, and gives them an enhanced clarity of perception, allowing them to memorize and copy jutsu." Sakusen recited.

He smirked. Well, that was great and all, but it wouldn't help them see him trailing them. Now, if it was something like the Hyuuga's Byakugan, Sakusen would have been in trouble.

Still, that was a useful tool to have. Itachi was lucky he had a kekkei genkai. Although he hadn't awakened yet, it seemed. How did one awaken it?

Shrugging his shoulders, Sakusen threw the scroll back on top of the stack he'd made and went down the hallway to his grandfather's study. He really didn't need to know how the Sharingan worked or how it got awakened, anyways. He just wanted to make sure that the Uchiha clan didn't have some unorthodox means of checking to see if they were being trailed. He wasn't going to be following them from directly behind, anyway. The last time he'd tried with Kakashi, he'd been caught every single time. No, he would have to stay much farther back.

Sakusen frowned, pausing in his next step. He hadn't seen Rin, Obito, or Kakashi in a while, now that he thought about it. They were so mean, not coming back to visit him. Or even Shisui, for that matter. Shisui had been gone a while, after he'd been promoted to Chuunin. Wasn't Shisui supposed to be stationed closer to the village?

He forgot about everything once he got to his grandfather's "war table." It was a map of the Great Nations on a large table, with pieces representing troops. Jiji kept an exact replica at the Tower, and he constantly kept both updated so he could plan at home and at work. There was even a schedule for the different squads that would be sent out, as well as other things, but Sakusen only really needed the schedule and the pieces.

Thank goodness Biwako-baa-chan or Jiji weren't home. They most certainly would not let him go with the Uchiha squad if he asked, and it wasn't fair if only Itachi got to go. Something in his head told him that this was a bad idea, but he kicked the voice to the side. He'd prove that he could do stuff just as well as Itachi too.

"Now, let's see... Where would Fugaku go?"

He _could_ go through each list and see if Fugaku was on there, but there were at least 50 lists, with different pieces on the board for every squad. That was a lot of work to go through. And Sakusen hated working hard. He would be smart about this.

If he was Fugaku, he certainly wouldn't want to send his kid far out into the front lines. That eliminated the pieces being sent into the top border. Which also meant he could eliminate those going into other nations. No way would Itachi be in an invasion. That left defense. And he knew that Itachi would be leaving in a day now, meaning that he could take out lists that didn't schedule anything for tomorrow. His choices were whittled down by a lot now.

He regretted not asking how long Itachi was going to be gone, because that would have narrowed his search down a little more based on the distance that he could travel in a day. But it was too late now. Itachi would get suspicious if he asked, and Sakusen, while he was a good liar, couldn't really keep anything from Itachi. Or Mikoto. Those two were scary smart.

He gathered up all the lists of defending squadrons that fit his criteria, and plopped down on a comfy chair. It was still a lot of names and patrols. This could take some time going through, and he didn't want cramps from bending over to read.

He didn't see the malicious gleam in the eyeholes of the snarling mask of his ANBU guard, hidden up in the ceiling vent.

* * *

Half an hour later, Sakusen had his squad, the route they would take, and the time they would leave. If he wanted to, he could leave before they did to beat Itachi to the outpost, but Jiji or someone else would most likely notice, and send Itachi's squad as a pursuit squad to bring him back. Besides, they were probably faster than he was. Going behind them was the best option.

His only other problem was his tail. After using his rudimentary sensing skills, he'd been able to pinpoint where his guards were most of the time. He didn't feel anything before he started his search for the right squad, so they were probably outside. Unless they were suppressing.

A cold chill ran through Sakusen, and he extended his senses. What if they had been suppressing? Then he would be caught by Jiji, and wouldn't be able to go see the fights. Circulating his chakra, he pinged outwards, trying to find his guard.

The Sensing Technique was something only a select few people could perform. It involved circulating the chakra throughout the body and expelling it in a small wave. Chakra reacted with chakra, and so foreign chakra signatures bounced the signal back, which the sensor could feel to get a grasp of the location and size of the chakra of the person. Or something like that. The scroll that Sakusen had read was for experts, and while he hadn't necessarily understood _everything_ in there, he'd gotten most of it.

That was why suppressing your chakra made it impossible for sensors to sense you. In order to ping back, chakra needed to be moving, and suppression stilled the flow of chakra to make sure that no pings were sent back.

Sakusen had tried the suppression technique once, but had failed miserably. He had too much of it to completely stop, which would be a problem on his secret mission, but he would make do somehow with simple stealth.

Pinging outward, be breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a presence on the roof of the house. That was his guard. No one would actually enter the house of the Hokage, after all. He nearly laughed at his stupidity.

What was he thinking about before this? Oh yes, his tail. That would be a problem, but maybe he would play sick that day. There was no need to guard someone that was staying in the most protected area in Konoha.

First things first though, was his equipment. There was a lot to do, and he had to pack quickly before anyone came home.

* * *

The next morning, Biwako set a worried hand on top of Sakusen's head, frowning slightly at the temperature.

"Don't worry Biwako-baa-chan, I'm fine. Just a little tired." Sakusen rasped out, bags underneath his eyes. He started coughing a little.

Inside, she cackled. Did he actually think he could fake a condition to an experienced medical-nin like herself? She dealt with _Jiraiya_ on a monthly basis, and he was the absolute worst. No doubt that Sakusen was pretending the majority of it. Although he wasn't sick, he was certainly exhausted. His chakra was low, and he was tired. That much was obvious. That sensei of his certainly seemed to work him hard. It was a good thing that she was discharged yesterday back onto the active roster after his practice. Sakusen, while smart and determined, was still a child, and closer to a toddler at that. Four-year-olds shouldn't be getting up at seven in the morning to train for five hours in kenjutsu.

He deserved a rest, she decided. But only this once. Next time, he wouldn't be getting away with it. No slacker would be raised in _her_ household.

"Stay in bed for the rest of the day," she ordered with a stern look on her face. "You're tired, so you need to regain your strength. I'll have someone leave lunch out on the front door later during the afternoon."

Sakusen had already pulled the covers over his face, leaving his long blond hair peeking out. She gave a little huff. The boy needed a haircut, but he insisted that he wanted to keep it long. Short hair didn't suit him, he said, and sadly, Biwako had to agree.

Taking a last glance back at him, Biwako walked out of his room, closing the door behind her. He was an Uzumaki, and they healed fast. Next morning, he would be bouncing around everywhere swinging that new wakizashi of his. Sakusen would be fine.

As soon as he heard the front door close and felt Biwako-baa-chan's chakra drift away, Sakusen sat up. He grinned victoriously. He'd had to go through great lengths to be able to fool his grandmother. Staying up all night to look tired had been part of it, and before his grandmother had come in he'd spent the better part of an hour literally roasting his face off near the heater vents to make it seem like he had a fever. It seemed to have worked, but you could never really tell with Baa-chan. That's what made her really scary.

Itachi would leave in an hour, so Sakusen would probably leave about 15 minutes after them. Far enough to stay undetected, since ninja moved fast, and close enough to still catch their trail. He shouldered his bag, snapping his weapons pouch to his leg and his wakizashi to his side. Fingering the hilt, he nearly sighed from the bliss of just holding his sword. His sleepless night had also consisted of tediously cleaning the sword and making sure the edge was keen and sharp. It was good to have your equipment in top condition during a fight.

Extending his senses, he quickly pinpointed the locations of the ANBU guarding the Hokage residence. It would be relatively easy to get past the guards. If they stopped to question him, he'd just say that he was going out training. They wouldn't really force him to stay home. Hopefully they wouldn't alert Baa-chan.

Strangely, when he stepped out, no one stopped him, even as he made a run to the gate. That was odd. He'd expected someone to ask, but maybe they didn't care. That worked better for him, in any case.

Stopping by the local taiyaki vendor (Sakusen ate those religiously), he quickly bought a couple, nodding to the woman who baked them. Munchies were important, and he had to keep his energy up after pulling an all-nighter. He wasn't doing that anytime soon again. Sakusen actually had to force his eyelids open to stay awake.

As he neared the gate, Sakusen slipped between two buildings across the road from the gatehouse. He neatly wrapped up his last taiyaki, making sure it was safely tucked away in his backpack. His outfit consisted of a black, zipped up jacket over a dull green shirt and black pants. He'd seen an orange jumpsuit on sale at one of the stores that made him cringe. Who in the world would wear that? And why? Granted, it did draw less suspicion because of the fact that it was so conspicuous, but still. Orange.

He peeked his head out from the alleyway he was in. By now, Itachi would have left. Which meant it was nearly time for Sakusen to leave, too. He pulled out his crinkled map, running through the route again. It was simple enough, and followed a road. Multiple roads, actually. He would probably stay in the trees to jump to avoid suspicion. Wow. Enma's training would actually come in handy, for once. Monkeys liked bananas, right? He'd get Enma some bananas later, as thanks. If he didn't toss him off another tree when he found out what Sakusen had done, that is.

His stomach suddenly twisted uncomfortably. Was this a good decision? Jiji and Biwako-baa-chan would be terribly worried, he knew. Maybe he should have left a note? The gate guards switched shifts, and Sakusen pushed all indecisiveness out of his mind. He'd prepared and planned too much to let it all go to waste.

He was about to dash out from the buildings and out of the gates when a hand suddenly snagged the hood of his black jacket. Whipping around, his blood ran cold.

"Haori-sensei!"

* * *

The first time she'd seen the kid that the Hokage was requesting her to teach, she immediately brushed him off. Too little, not strong enough, and too oblivious to the state Konoha was in. It was one thing to grow up in war, and an entirely different thing to _experience_ it. That shine in the kid's eye spoke of stupidity and a sheltered lifestyle. What was the Sandaime thinking? If he wanted the boy to be safe, he had to let the kid know what kind of shitstorm he was dealing with first. This was not a child ready to go into battle lopping off heads. That's what they did.

He was annoying, with all the crap he spouted day and night about how amazing his "friends" were in battle. Yeah, right, she snorted. You weren't friends with anyone until you'd spent a day bathing together in other people's blood. Or if you fucked the whole day. Any one worked.

He might think that he understood war. Might think that he knew what he was dealing with. But the truth was, you never really knew unless you experienced the fighting for yourself.

But his determination had shone through, and, a little irritably, the boy had grown on her. Just a little. Like a mold. He had a passion for learning, and didn't give up easily. Haori had to appreciate that kind of grit, even in a stupid little brat. Most would just give in and start crying after the first aches started up. But this one was special. He had potential.

That was also the reason why she had decided to do what she was doing now.

Yesterday had been a wonderful day. Haori had beat the kid into the ground in the morning, got the casts off and the uniform back on in the afternoon, and had her first actual mission in a long time in the evening. Being able to stand and move freely after months of confinement was _orgasmic._

That mission, unfortunately, was more babysitting. And it was the _same kid._ She was starting to like the kid, true, but that didn't mean the Sandaime had to take every chance to stick them together. Someday, she was going to park her foot up the ass of the Chuunin that kept sticking her with "babysitting Sakusen" missions.

But when the kid had gotten home, his face reminded her of someone out to kill. That sort of determination always interested her. When she'd clambered into the vents of the Hokage's Residence to do some spying (those small vents were not made for people with hips like hers), she was disappointed to find that he was researching the Uchiha. Haori had expected a little more from her student. Not even a scroll on how to kill someone with your pinkies, but a scroll on the _Uchiha_ _?_ They were boring as fuck. Why the hell did he want to know about the Sharingan?

What he did next _really_ piqued her interest. He'd found, with impressive speed, the squad that Uchiha Fugaku was heading out on. And that jogged her memory to recall some of the gossip that she'd heard around the ANBU lounge. _Fugaku is taking his son to see the war,_ someone had said. She'd smirked then, a slow, sadistic twist of the lips. So the boy wanted to experience war, did he? He was probably jealous of his friend. They hung out together frequently, so it made sense. She would judge him based on his effort to tag along, and would decide then.

This time, she was not disappointed. He might have been a stupid little brat, but he was a _smart_ stupid little brat. If that made sense. Sakusen had drawn plan after plan, and his final one was a decent try, if she said so herself. Not bad, but not too good either. She expected much less, so she was pleasantly surprised at the amount of thought that a four-year-old had put into escaping his village security. That all-nighter was something else too. Kudos to him.

Presently, he was clutched in her arms against her chest almost protectively, still frozen up with fear. How cute.

"Now, now," Haori purred, "Surely, you weren't thinking of escaping here to follow the Uchiha and go see the fights for yourself, were you?"

A fire suddenly lit in the boy's eyes, and she watched, amused, as he connected the last of the dots.

"You! You were the guard last night! I remember your chakra! But... you were up on the roof. How did you know?"

She threw her head back and laughed.

"You haven't heard of Shadow Clones? I made one to act as me on the roof, then I suppressed my own and watched you. I must say, I'm impressed with you. You've done so welllll," she crooned, pinching his cheeks.

He drew back, a stubborn pout on his lips.

"So you told the ANBU not to delay me this morning, either. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm still going, and you can't stop me."

That was quite a leap of logic he made, but correct nonetheless. Except for his last bit.

"You're mistaken. I'm not going to stop you. I'm here to _escort_ you."

She watched as the confusion set on his face, and smirked.

"You weren't thinking that I would let you go on this alone, would you? First though, we should get our stories straight. You escaped out of the village, then I ran off in pursuit, but was too late. You already made it to the battlefield. And it's not like I'll get in trouble, either! I'm not the assigned guard for you today, so I have no responsibility for you at all," she said in a sing-song tone.

"Alright!" Sakusen cheered, and she blinked a little at the complete 180 he'd just done. My my, he was much too trusting. What if she was leading him into a trap? He still was a stupid little kid.

After whispering her plan to him, she sauntered out from between the buildings to the gate guards' booth. They noticeably stiffened up at the sight of her. Gekko Haori was on par with Inuzuka Tsume in her sadistic tendencies, and it was common knowledge.

"So, boysss," she said with a husky purr, drawing out the last word. "How's your day been? Must be boring, with nothing _exciting_ happening around here." She bent over the desk at the word _exciting_ , leering at the petrified guards who were eyeing her now-exposed ample cleavage.

Sakusen wrinkled his nose. Sensei was so weird sometimes. Scratch that, all the time. But he had to admit, there was something hypnotizing of the view he was getting of her swaying behind. Shaking his head, he bolted through the gate while the guards' attention was diverted. That was easy.

A minute later, he was joined by his sensei mid-tree jump. "What did you do to them?" he asked in a slightly disturbed tone. Images of torture filled his head, but to his surprise Haori-sensei simply shook her head and winked cheekily at him.

"You'll understand when you're older. You know where to go, right?"

Oh yeah, his map. He brought it out from his pocket, tracing the trail.

"It says we follow this trail for a mile, then switch to the next."

"Then let's do that."

Sakusen was quiet for a moment, before opening his mouth again.

"Hey sensei... thanks for helping me sneak out."

Haori laughed, this time without any humor.

"Don't thank me, kid. I'm doing this for you, but whatever you do, don't _ever_ thank me for this."

 _It's because I care for you now that I'm doing this. No doubt, you'll be traumatized. You'll hate me like the piece of shit I am for doing this to you. But I know this. If you can carry on, you will be stronger than you could ever dream. And that strength will keep you alive, at least for now. Stay alive. I don't need more deaths on my hands._

* * *

 **I really enjoy writing Haori, mostly because she reminds me a little of Xin from Shades of Cool by TeeBeMee. Psychotic but still lovable. It's also more fun to write a character with a character that's a little crazy. I felt a little more satisfied with this chapter. Idk why, it feels the same as the last one, but I just feel more accomplished with it. Anyways, next up is obviously the battle. Your guess as to who's going to be in it. As always, Please Review this story! I like to hear what y'all think about my (slightly terrible) writing. Feedback is appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Finalsss. Killing mee. Shit, my grades need work, and I'm still writing. Wtf am I doing with my life, goddammit. Anyways, new chapter, enjoy!**

* * *

Hours later, Sakusen was forced to admit that he'd made a _small_ miscalculation. Sensei had pushed him harder than he had originally planned on going, so by his estimate, they should have been at the base a little before nightfall.

Standing before the sign that marked the end of only the first of many roads they had to follow, he realized that the way to the outpost was _much_ farther away than he had originally thought. That was embarrassing. He must have made a mistake somewhere in his planning.

After checking the map for the fifth time, he concluded that no, this was not a mistake, he really did mess up. And yes, Haori-sensei was going to be incapable of combat for the next five or so minutes if anything happened, judging by the way she was rolling around on the ground shrieking with laughter.

To be fair, if he was watching from the sidelines, the disbelieving shout he let out upon seeing the signpost would probably have been funny to him, too. But this was _not_ funny at all.

"You," wheezed Haori, clutching the grass for dear life, "thought this was just gonna be some walk in the park? Did you think you'd be at the outpost in time to get tucked into bed before dark?" She unleashed another stream of hysterical giggles, and Sakusen could only look away with a mortified pout. Finally, with watery eyes, Haori sat up, still with that annoying smirk on her face.

"The way to the outpost takes, at the _very least,_ which means _Jounin_ _level speed,_ two full days of traveling to reach. Just 'cause it's the 'inner' outpost doesn't mean that it's just a short walk away from the village." She chuckled, wiping the tears away from her eyes. "That is sooo cute. I keep forgetting you're a kid, sometimes, with how smart you act. You've never been outside of Konoha, have you?"

"No. So I wouldn't even know how long it would take, anyways," Sakusen answered, petulantly crossing his arms with a huff. So he messed up. It was only a little bit. It's not like it was a big factor that would completely change their journey.

Haori saw the irritated look on his face and starting laughing again. She couldn't help it. Seeing the little brat get mad was hilarious. Like an angry puppy.

"Why the hell are you mad? You haven't done shit like this before. It's literally your first time." She snorted. "And you're, like, what? Two? Stop whining about it."

"Don't swear. Swearing is bad," he muttered, ignoring his sensei's glare. "And I'm not two. I told you, I'm four. Besides, it's not like this matters too much. We can still go on."

Disappointing. Haori tsked. "That is a surprisingly careless attitude coming from you, brat." At his questioning look, she elaborated. "How much food did you pack? Enough for three whole days, or just one? Maybe one and a half? What about clothes? Stuff that runs out? Changing factors, no matter how small, can have big consequences." Though she didn't say it, her tone added a _you idiot_ at the end. "You could die because of shit you didn't know about. Don't just brush it off."

Sakusen blushed, looking down to scuff the dirt. He didn't think of that. "I only packed for one. But I have extra food. And I brought overnight gear. Just in case, y'know, for emergencies."

At least he was well packed. "We'll see what you packed later. For now, let's have lunch! I'm starving. Didn't get to eat anything except an energy bar 'cause I was watching you the whole time this morning."

"Sensei, that's creepy."

* * *

By nightfall, they had gone over a third of the way. Haori-sensei seemed a little surprised with his stamina. Even if Sakusen was a kid, he was a tough kid. The fact that he was an Uzumaki also helped. Having lots and lots of chakra meant that you didn't tire as quickly.

The only exciting thing to happen was the freaking _bear_ that had jumped him right after they had eaten lunch. Sakusen was absolutely stupid. He had actually brought good food to eat, and while good food was good to eat, it was also usually good-smelling as well. That attracted things like bugs, animals, and ninja that specialized in scent tracking. It was better to bring things like the ration bars Sensei had to eliminate preparation time and smells.

Sakusen had to hand it to Sensei though. He would have been bear kibble if Haori-sensei hadn't cleaved the beast's head off with one stroke of her katana. That was _sick._ It had ripped open his pack before dying, though, destroying his sleeping gear and some other clothes.

Which was why he was presently wrapped up in Haori-sensei's sleeping bag. With her in it as well. Sakusen squirmed a little, trapped in the arms of his sensei for the second time that day. He was a little nervous. Sensei had been a little too excited to have a new _"_ teddy bear" to take with her to bed. And he knew how she treated her new "toys." Violently.

Sadly, there wasn't really another option. It was winter, and nights in the Land of Fire were bitterly cold. Plus, even though he would never admit it to her, there was something comforting about being wrapped up in a warm hug like this. If only it wasn't so tight.

"Stop moving," Sensei mumbled into his hair. "You move more than Hayate," she added a little nostalgically.

"That's your son, right?" He vaguely remembered seeing another Gekko on the roster. "Gekko Hayate? The other kenjutsu specialist?"

She nodded, bumping her chin on the top of his head. "That's him, yes. He's getting much better at kenjutsu now - nearly as good as I was at that age," she said, with a faint hint of pride in her voice. "He made Chuunin a couple of months ago! It's a damn shame he never comes home often. Always out on missions, too busy to visit his lonely mommy."

Wasn't she in ANBU though? That meant that she got even more missions than him, right? Why was she the one complaining? This was getting confusing. And sad, too. He didn't understand why someone wouldn't visit their own mother. It didn't sound like they had a bad relationship with each other, so he didn't get it.

"If you were my mother, I would visit you a lot."

Crap. He just blurted that out without thinking. Great.

Gekko Haori was admittedly one of the most strangest people he had ever come across, personality-wise. She was foul-mouthed, prone to violent outbursts, and had a sadistic side that he was absolutely terrified of when she let it loose during their sparring sessions. But she wasn't _mean,_ really. Just a bit crazy and weird. There was nothing wrong with that. If anything, it made her a little more fun to be around.

Besides, Jiji said that every ninja had a weird side to them. This was probably normal. Kakashi was a little like that too, except he was just mean to everyone, not crazy.

Instead of the raucous, mocking laughter he was expecting, Sakusen was surprised when she let out an entirely different, almost fond-sounding chuckle.

"Aww, you would? How nice. You're a sweetheart, aren't you?"

Ignoring the burning red of his cheeks, she continued. "Hayate's also busy because of that girl he's seeing. Yugao? Can't blame him, I would be going after her too if I was their age. He's sort of like you, in fact, organizing your own mission just to chase after your crush," she finished with her trademark teasing smirk.

He tilted his head. "What's a crush?"

 _Oh my goddd he's so cute._ "Never mind, you'll find out later. When you're older and more grown-up."

Sakusen would have to look that up later. Crush? Like, crush something? Maybe she meant the battlefield. That was probably it. But what did it have to do with going after girls?

* * *

Haori was reluctant to get up the next morning. It was cold and still pretty dark. Her new portable (sort of) heater was still fast asleep, snuggled in her chest. Some men would kill to be in his position right now, he was a lucky bastard. _At least I know what he's gonna go after in the future,_ she thought as she grinned, catlike.

But there were responsibilities she had to take care of, and that involved feeding her brat. Properly. Stupid kid, bringing _beef stew_ on a... whatever this was. Unofficial mission? Outing? Field trip, she decided. Field trips were educational experiences. This fit the bill perfectly. He'd already learned a lot. Like to not be stupid. _Beef stew,_ though, was he serious? He was making her look bad as his sensei.

Unzipping her sleeping bag, she tried to roll out the side, but the kid had his arms around her thin waist. Sometime during the night, he'd maneuvered around so he was hugging her back. Slightly annoyed, Haori tried to pry his arms off, but Sakusen had an iron grip. And were those little howling croons he was making in his sleep? She might actually steal this kid from Kushina, he was so goddamn adorable. Damn, when did she grow so attached to him?

And that little comment from last night had slightly melted her heart. Secretly, she was a sucker for cute talk like that. Glaring down fondly at the blond head, she smiled.

"You would visit me every day, huh?"

It was quite obvious that the child was starved for attention. The Sandaime didn't know shit about raising a kid. Maybe his wife did, but both were busy as important figures in the village. The way he leaned into her when she opened up her arms to him in the sleeping bag, that little Kushina-like moment where he let his mouth run off without his brain, and the way he was clinging onto her right now spoke volumes of his neglect. No wonder he'd gotten attached to _her,_ of all people.

Haori managed to slip out of her bedroll, grabbing the tanto from underneath her pillowcase. She ruffled her sleeping protege's hair. They had slept on the ground with no overhead cover, since tents were for sissies and those that wanted to die in the case of an ambush. Stifling a yawn, she managed to stir the embers of the fire from last night into a warm blaze, setting her coffee pot on top of it. Making sure she looked sufficiently awake enough, she glanced at Sakusen. Time to play the good role model.

Taking the nearest object (Sakusen's sandal), she flung it at the kid's head, screaming bloody murder.

"The fuck you doing staying asleep this long? It's been more than an hour since I got up, and you're still snoozing! Get your lazy ass up and out before I make you run laps!"

She was a lying liar. But good soldiers were not made by letting them get their beauty sleep. Sakusen didn't even need it anyways, if he inherited any of his looks at all from his parents. They were both way too pretty to be shinobi.

Sakusen was leaping over logs, bounding through snowfalls and over frozen lakes with the wolves. Then one of them did the strangest thing. The wolf launched itself straight at a tree, slamming into with such force that the trunk cracked, and the snow dotting the branches was shaken off. It slowly fell towards him, and he could do nothing but watch as it painfully collided with his head. The other wolves had mysteriously vanished. Then it started shouting in a familiar voice. Something about sleeping. And laps.

Laps?

He sat bolt upright, turning his head so fast he heard something crack in his neck. Sensei was grinning at him cheerfully, and for a moment, his heart stopped. Flashbacks of moments like this ran through his head, of days where he'd passed out from all the kata that he had to perform, then woken up to that exact same evil Cheshire grin. Then he remembered. They weren't in training, they were out on their own in the middle of the wilderness.

Groaning, he got up out of the warm sleeping bag, shivering in the cold.

"Good morning. Was I really sleeping that long?"

"Yep," Haori answered, sipping coffee from a stupidly large mug. It was literally the size of his head. Not even Baa-chan drank that much, even on bad days. No wonder she was always so high-strung during morning practices.

He pulled a wry face. "Coffee is disgusting. How do you drink that?"

Haori was still trying to figure out how the kid wasn't complaining about his head. The impact wasn't even what woke him up, and she threw that sandal pretty fucking hard. He was probably like Kushina - nice and thick-skulled. She hid a smile by bringing her mug to her lips again.

"Coffee is good shit. Better than those soldier pills you have in that pack, trust me. Want some?"

Sakusen pulled a wry face."I'm okay, thanks. Coffee is nasty. When do we leave?"

She shrugged. "Whenever you want to leave. It's your trip. Your decisions."

Sakusen's eye twitched. If it was up to him, why did she have to wake him up? It was barely even dawn yet. This was literally the earliest he had ever woken up before. But this was probably another test, if the expectant gleam in Haori-sensei's eyes was of any indication.

"I think... we should get moving soon? To get a head start? And not fall behind?" He trailed off weakly as the glint intensified.

"You asking me, or you telling me? Pick one and stick with it," Haori said bluntly.

He coughed. "Yes. We should get going as soon as possible, to catch up. After breakfast."

Haori-sensei smiled, and he almost let out a sigh of relief. Ever since she had found out that he was "pretty damn smart," she had periodically been testing him on battle situations and emergencies. Answering wrongly would usually result in painful consequences and sore eardrums.

She tossed him a ration bar, and he caught it with one hand. It was slightly smushed, but it was from the Akimichi stores, which meant that it tasted better than the normal variety. The knowledge of food that the Akimichi clan had was a blessing to the whole village, and they somehow made bars jam-packed with essential nutrients and vitamins taste pretty good. He'd once tried the standard issue ones, and nearly barfed it back up.

Thank goodness for the good relations and trade between the Sarutobi and the Akimichi clans.

Packing up took exactly one minute. It was essential for ninja to be efficient in what they did, and Haori-sensei had drilled him over and over again on this concept. Kenjutsu used the same concept; wasted movements were openings for attack. Sakusen thought it was ironic at first, since she tended to say the names of the techniques she used, but she assured him that it was a "ninja thing," and that he would understand later.

Kicking dirt over the remains of the campfire, Sakusen shouldered the remains of his shredded pack - _stupid bear_ \- and clipped his wakizashi to the right side of his waist. Unsheathing it halfway, he briefly examined his reflection in the shiny surface. His hair was getting long enough to shadow his eyes now, and reached his upper back. Could he could grow it long enough to make it into a ponytail? Everyone knew that all the good ninjas had long hair. Senju Hashirama had long hair in his pictures, and so did Jiraiya. Maybe Jiji once had long hair? He sheathed his blade with a click, and turned to his sensei.

"Ready! Let's go."

* * *

"We're here," Haori announced in a grim voice.

Sakusen shivered. Two days had passed quickly, and they had reached their destination. The outpost was nothing special; just a couple of buildings surrounded by the trees. He could see a guard tower rising above the settlement. But something was wrong. It felt too... quiet. Extending his senses, he found nothing at all. No chakra signatures, no nothing.

Haori-sensei swore, low and vicious.

"It must be pretty bad if they're gone. No one left to even defend. That's not a smart move at all," she muttered.

Sakusen stole a glance at his sensei.

"Where's the fighting? Does that mean they're out defending? Or did they lose?"

She shook her head.

"The real fighting should be out farther, maybe a couple of miles away." Haori-sensei adjusted her katana on her back. "This is where we split. You wanted to find your friend and see the fighting? Up north is where it's gonna be. I'll be busy keeping my alibi, so I can't be seen with you. You'll have to go alone."

He almost protested, but drew back when Haori-sensei glared at him. She was right. Being seen together wouldn't fit in with the "I was busy tracking the idiot and didn't find him until the battle" story. He _did_ agree to her idea, after all, so sticking to her plan was the least he could do to thank her for helping him out.

Helping him out of the village was probably some sort of capital offense anyways. He wouldn't wish that on Haori.

"Alright." He bit his lip. "I'll be off now."

"Stay safe and out of trouble," she warned. Her expression was stern, but he could see a bit of concern in there as well. "You aren't prepared to deal with some of the people you'll find out there. Promise you'll stay away?"

"I promise."

"Good. See ya, kid. I'll probably be somewhere else, chopping some heads off."

And just like that, Haori-sensei and her sadistic smile was gone with the wind, and he was alone.

Nowhere to go but forward.

* * *

Sakusen smelled the battle long before he heard or saw it.

He actually didn't know what it was that he was detecting in the air, but he knew it was disgusting. The wind carried the scent to him, and it wasn't hard to pick up. Kakashi had reluctantly taught him the basics of scent tracking after being pestered for a whole afternoon, and while he would never be as good as him, he knew how to slightly enhance his sense of smell by channeling chakra to his nose.

He regretted having been taught this small skill now. The heavy, irony haze permeated the air, making it hard to breathe without gagging.

Then, as he ran closer to the source, he heard the sounds. Metal clashing with metal reached his ears first, the sharp clanging already familiar to him due to his sparring sessions against Haori-sensei. Closer still, and he heard the screams, the shouts, of people yelling out jutsu names and war cries.

Sakusen's knees shook. He was scared. Why did he decide to come to this, again? Now that he thought again, this was a bad idea. Like, a _really_ bad idea. There was just one last desolate hill to summit, and something deep within Sakusen told him that he would _not_ like what he saw beyond there, that he should _run run run._

But he had come this far, if only to show the others that he wasn't incompetent. That he could handle himself, and be trusted like other people could be trusted. Like Itachi could be trusted.

Truthfully speaking, he was a little jealous of his friend. Itachi wasn't sheltered like he was, Itachi had parents who cared for him, Itachi didn't have guards assigned to him, Itachi was allowed to see the war. Well, he was better in kenjutsu than Itachi, he didn't need parents to take care of him, he didn't need guards, and he certainly didn't need sheltering from the war. He had to prove himself.

Steeling his resolve, he scrambled up the rocky surface, not noticing the sad brown eyes of the camouflaged Haori hidden in the trees. They vanished in another direction once he left.

 _He will be strong._

* * *

The crest of the hill fell away abruptly on the other side, forming a cliff that led into a flat, expansive desert. There, Sakusen discovered the origin of the smells.

It was blood. It was unloaded bowels, leaking bladders, inner organs seeing the light of the sun which they were never meant to see. It was the corpses of the shinobi, of all different nations, Konoha, Iwa, Suna, Kumo, Kiri, _everyone,_ strewn indiscriminately on the reddened desert sand as far as he could see.

But for each of the fallen that he picked out, there were five more living, fighting, killing shinobi still locked in the throes of battle. And he could see them fall over like dominoes, from beautiful, terrible jutsu of every nature, from kunai, shuriken, exploding tags, and swords like his own.

For a long time, Sakusen just stood and watched. Watched the carnage unfold, as more and more fell, died, ceased to live again. They wouldn't be going home alive, to see their mothers and fathers, their friends. Their children. Everything they had, gone in that single moment.

Why? What was the point? What the _hell_ was the point of this? Couldn't they just get along? What made them so different from each other that they would murder another human being like this?

He fell to his knees, sitting back with a harsh thump. No one ever told him that war was... was like _this._ He had never thought about it this way. Had never been told about it this way. When Obito grinned, thumbs up, and said, "I got three Iwa-nin on our last mission!" And when Kakashi dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and said, "Big deal, loser. I got eleven." He had thought that that was so cool. But, they were _killing_ them? Like _this?_

 _How stupid was he?_

He was told that war was glorious, that it was good to serve your village. To fight, gain honor, and to carry out missions for the Hokage.

This. This couldn't be glorious. This wasn't honorable. There was nothing _good_ about this. All he saw was death and despair, and sadness. The villages benefited from _this?_

Sakusen's dazed musing was cut short. It was inevitable that he would be discovered, either from his noticeable hair or his chakra signature. An Iwa Chuunin, who had just finished denting in the skull of a Konoha genin kunoichi (Did he know the woman? Did she have family? Maybe a mother or father back home?), scanned around for more victims and saw the bright, spikey blond visage of the small child sitting at the top of the hill. The large man grinned, hefting his bloodied war hammer over his shoulder. It was just a boy, but boys served in wars too. And this one looked like the Flash. Never mind the fact that it didn't have a forehead protector anywhere.

Setting down his hammer, the Chuunin clumsily sped through hand seals and slammed his palm on the ground.

"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"

Still in his trance, Sakusen just watched as a bright flash of chakra ripped towards him from the ground, running through the veins of the earth. It formed a small square directly underneath him, and launched him up into the sky like a piston and towards the battlefield.

 _What a useful jutsu._ Sakusen mindlessly droned in his head, as time seemed to slow down while he was airborn.

A jutsu using earth chakra to raise a section of the earth, with sufficient force. Useful for supplementary purposes, but he bet he could think of some creative uses for that jutsu.

The wind whistled in his ears.

Probably a precursor to the Earth-Style Wall, since they were quite similar, but this jutsu didn't seem to be reinforced with the dense chakra fortifications that was characterized with the Earth-Style Wall.

He had reached the climax of his flight, and was beginning to fall.

Maybe that was why the Iwa-nin could use it at such a great distance away? Less chakra needed to be sent through the earth compared to the larger amount of the Earth Wall, which meant that less fine chakra control was needed, giving greater range and utility...

The Iwa-nin sneered at the falling child. The boy wasn't even doing anything. What was he, retarded? It didn't matter. He would be dead in less than five seconds of free fall. Checking his back, and only finding his comrade there, he hefted his war hammer. How far could he send this boy, he wondered? It would be like batting a ball.

Sakusen looked down. There was the Iwa-nin, getting ready to swing. He looked strong.

Four seconds left until impact.

What was the point? He could try, but did he really want anything to do with this shitty war?

Three seconds left until impact.

No, there was no point. Haori-sensei was right, he was just a stupid little kid. He thought he was so smart. He knew jack. No wonder Jiji kept coddling him. He wasn't prepared to deal with this. He didn't want to deal with this. This was a stupid world he lived in. Sakusen closed his eyes.

Two seconds left.

In another dimension, gleaming ice-blue eyes narrowed. Something stirred inside Sakusen, then roared. A primal fear, of being hunted, of being chased, of death. Howling filled his ears, and above all, one voice rang clearly, distinctly female with growling undertones.

 _Do you want to die?_

His eyes snapped open, and the world sharpened with alarming clarity. His shock was broken.

One second left until impact. Until he died. The hammer was already in motion, an upward swing, just a couple of feet away. He made his decision.

 _No. I don't want to die._

He clapped his hands. Potent chakra streamed through his small body, unleashing itself like a dammed river breaking free, and Sakusen pulsed and shone with a deep, purple aura. His focus heightened, and the world slowed down. He could see the movement of the hammer rushing towards him in slow motion, could see the blood staining it, could see the intricate patterns of mountain ranges and the Iwa symbol carved into it.

Then he bent his legs, counting on his small size to make this possible, and the moment before his feet made contact with the silver surface, did the very same thing that had toppled a great Hashirama tree in the Third Training Ground.

He.

Pushed.

The hammer exploded into countless shards, some impaling the Iwa-nin, and sent the Chuunin flying back a fair distance. Sakusen, still curled up, was blasted like a cannonball in a mirror image of his first time doing this, spiraling in a dizzying pattern.

But this time, he was prepared. Sand wasn't a solid surface that he could cling to yet, but that wasn't his only option. Unsheathing his wakizashi mid-roll, he streamed chakra through it before stabbing downwards through the sand to slow himself down to a stop in front of the hill. His eyes, shadowed by his hair thrown forward from the force of the blast, glared with a violent, violet light. His blood sang with the song of wolves, and his mind was crystal clear.

The Iwa-nin wasn't done, not by a long shot. He was a very durable man, and Sakusen was already scanning him to get a scope of his abilities.

 _Large build and weapon of choice indicate a preference to taijutsu. Weapon holster on right leg shows proficiency in tools as well. Known affinity for Earth Release. Can use Moving Core. Genjutsu capabilities unknown._

The Iwa-nin sat up heavily, and grimaced. To say the least, he was confused. This kid looked like he was ready to die or something. Now he had fight. Feeling his left arm become numb and unresponive, he looked at it and saw a silver shard embedded in his shoulder. His beautiful hammer was destroyed. By this fucking _kid._

Roaring in anger, the man got up and charged like a bull straight towards Sakusen.

 _Low intelligence, easily angered. Attacks without thinking when provoked. Prefers unarmed combat to using weapons. Prolonged fight is inadvisable._

His first strike had to count for everything, then. Before the man realized that using a weapon was probably the smarter way to face an opponent also armed with a weapon.

Crouching low to the ground, Sakusen gripped his sword tightly with both hands. His mind was clear and focused on the rapidly approaching ninja. Gritting his teeth and drawing his arms back, he yelled.

"Leaf-Style: Sweeping Blade!"

Now he knew why shinobi shouted their attacks. It wasn't to announce what you were doing. It served as a medium to focus all your intent into completing that one attack successfully. Also, because saying it sounded a heck of a lot cooler than shrieking and shouting.

Sakusen dashed forward in a rudimentary Shunshin, blade poised to slash through the man's side. The Chuunin, realizing his mistake, managed to bring out a hidden kunai from his sleeve that bit into Sakusen's shoulder. But it was too late, and the wakizashi cut through flesh for the first time.

Sakusen finished his technique the same way to started out, crouching low to the ground. Behind him, the heavy thump told him of the fate of his opponent. He had won. He had actually won.

Breathing heavily, Sakusen dropped to his knees, still holding on to his sword. His knuckles were turning white from the strain. That was exhilarating. The adrenaline rush hadn't worn off yet, and he was high on the moment. He wouldn't die. Not today. But... He killed his first man. He took another life.

Grief overtook his mind, and he clutched his head in fury and sorrow for a moment. He just did the thing that had made him despise the world for being what it was. He wasn't any better than anyone else out here. But it was to protect himself. He didn't want to die. Was it right? To kill other people if it meant protecting yourself? Sakusen's mind was confused. He had to see the man again, remember his face and the moment.

Chancing a brief glimpse back at the fallen ninja, he barely had time to react before a monstrously huge paw slammed into him, knocking him head over heels into someone else's previously constructed Earth Wall. Blinking the stars out of his vision, he let himself have a moment to lament. He let down his guard. He was the one who'd lost.

Crap.

Said monstrous paw belonged to the Iwa-nin, now bleeding from a deep gash in his side. Somehow he was still standing while clamping his other hand over the wound. Credit had to be given where it was due, this man was a tough cookie. And an even angrier one now.

"You," the man snarled, limping closer, "are dead. I'm gonna enjoy bashing your skull in with my bare hands."

Sakusen started to panic. He was going to die. His head was hurting from the impact, and his ribs ached from where he was struck. Every time he took a breath, a sharp pain in his chest took it away. Something was probably broken, judging from the crack he'd heard when the hit had connected. He was actually going to die here.

A black blur appeared in his peripherals, and the Iwa-nin was caught by surprise for the second and last time that day as his throat was slashed out. Uchiha Itachi was standing over the corpse with a shocked expression, bloody kunai in hand. Their eyes met briefly before Sakusen broke the contact.

He was the only one who saw it coming. Itachi's back was turned, so he couldn't have noticed. The Iwa-nin's smaller partner, forgotten from before (stupid, _stupid_ ), was brandishing a kunai at the frozen Itachi's head.

 _Oh no you_ don't.

Reaching deep within himself, Sakusen's chakra pulsed again, and hefound himself moving without thinking. He pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the pain in his ribs and head. All he saw was someone trying to hurt his friend.

No one would hurt his friend.

Springboarding off the ground, he hurtled over Itachi's surprised expression and slashed downwards, deep into the man's skull. The blade dug into the brain, and he dropped like a sack of rocks. This one was most definitely dead.

The pain registered in his senses once more, snapping him back to focus. He just did it again. Except, this time, he actually did it. He killed a man. The man was _dead dead dead,_ and wouldn't be coming home.

He felt sick. What kind of world was this? Where so much sadness occurred daily because of conflict. Had he done the right thing? It didn't feel right, not at all. Jiji told him once that if a situation feels wrong, it probably is wrong.

But did he regret it? He regretted having to kill the man, but he would do it again if he had to. To protect his friend. To protect his precious ones.

 _How selfish,_ he thought to himself. He was allowed to kill others that harmed his precious ones, but at the same time was allowed to feel disgusted at others for doing the same? They were all fighting for their village, to avenge fallen comrades. Why was he any different?

Sakusen tried to turn around, but the world swayed, and he found himself on the ground, facing up at Itachi. He was past his limit.

"... watch... your back," he mumbled, and Itachi's face turned even paler than it was before.

"Holy... I did, but he used-"

"No," Sakusen wheezed. Speaking was painful - he could only let out words in short intervals. Itachi's head cocked to the side ever so slightly.

"I'm... watching... your back."

For reasons that he didn't know, tears sprang to Itachi's eyes, and he quickly wiped them away, narrowing them in a severe glare.

"You could have died. What are you doing out here?"

"Couldn't... let you... have all... the fun." Sakusen was starting to slur. Or was he? It was getting hard to see now. Itachi propped his head up on a knee, inspecting his chest.

"I think you broke them. Your ribs. You might have a concussion, too. Can you see well? Are you coherent? Geez, I hate this. What are we-" He cut off his panicked rambling (Itachi could panic? Since when?) and looked around the area sharply.

This was an open battlefield, after all. None of them were safe. Entering Sensing State, Sakusen perceived six signatures approaching them from all around. He could only hope they were friendly.

"Well, look here, fellas. An Uchiha clan member. Those are nice to get, with their pretty eyes."

Of course they weren't friendlies. Sakusen hated his luck sometimes. Itachi was already trying to plan a way out of this, he knew it. But it wouldn't work. Sakusen had screwed up. Just one mistake was all it took. He was most certainly done for. He couldn't breathe right, his vision had black spots, and his thoughts were getting foggier and foggier. But that didn't mean Itachi had to share the same fate.

"Listen," he whispered blindly, taking smaller breaths. "You need to leave me. I have some smoke pellets. I'll throw them down. You get out." Sakusen let out a raspy cough, and Itachi shook his head frantically.

"Not an option. I'm not leaving my first friend here."

He nearly cursed, if it wouldn't have taken so much effort. Itachi wasn't going to leave him, and he knew it. Of all the times to be stubborn.

They were going to die. He had this same feeling before, but this time it felt so much more real. Sakusen was no match for any of these. Hell, he'd gone up against a Chuunin, and it only counted as a victory because the man had let his guard down too many times. They would have died in a real fight.

Sakusen shut his eyes tightly, squeezing them closed until he could see little pinpricks of light form in his dark vision. He didn't want to die. No one wanted to die. And for the first time, he could empathize with everyone in their last moments on the battlefield. This was a horrible feeling. Even more so that his perfectly healthy friend was about to die as well because of him. If only he hadn't gone out of the village.

But then, he supposed, there were a lot of "if only" moments in life. If only he hadn't been so stupid. If only he could have lived. What would he do? He would probably try to find a way to help everyone. Because no one deserved this situation.

Yes, he mused, feeling the circle of signatures come closer and closer. If he had a second chance, he would probably try to find peace. Peace was a dream, that even Jiji had given up on. He'd like to succeed where his grandfather hadn't, and make the world a better place.

Something pinged on the edge of his senses, moving towards them at a speed that was even faster than Haori-sensei. And it was familiar. Very familiar.

His eyes opened wide, and Sakusen started grinning like a maniac.

The leader of the squad, an ugly Kumo-nin (of course they would be here trying to pick up bloodlines), looked down at him. Two kids, one trying to defend the other, a cripple. And the cripple was smiling. A sneer formed on his face.

"The fuck you laughing about? Happy that we came along? We'll take good care of you and your friends, we promise."

A sonic boom exploded through the area, and a small figure with shining red eyes and a tanto materialized on top of the cliff.

"Actually," it said, in a voice that brought tears of joy to Sakusen's eyes, "They're with me."

And with a perfect Shunshin, Uchiha Freaking Shisui slashed through the leader and two other members of the squad at once like a demon. A wonderful demon. Whipping his hands through seals faster than Sakusen could see, he inhaled deeply, red eyes glowing.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball!"

The remnants of the squad scattered, and Shisui turned to face the kids. He was older, and taller than when Sakusen had last seen him. And, he looked like... well, like he'd just been in a war. But on the losing side. Among other injuries, the most notable ones were bloody streaks that ran down from his eyes, which were bloodshot, like he'd been crying.

But they were alive! They would live. Sakusen nearly sobbed, but pushed it all back down. They made it. They survived.

"Geez, you look... like crap. What happened... to your face?" Sakusen gasped out.

" _I_ look like crap?" Shisui sounded positively enraged. That was never a good thing. "What about you? What are you even doing here? You too, Itachi. This is a war zone! Fugaku actually let you come?"

Sakusen's vision was slowly going dark, and he let it. All the pain in his body dulled away. He needed rest. Was Itachi supposed to have dog ears?

"Gonna slee' no'," he mumbled incoherently, eyes closing. "'M tired."

"Fugaku didn't let _this_ one come." That was Haori-sensei's voice, no doubt about it. She was hiding and watching this whole time, wasn't she? She really was a nice person.

"He ran off like the idiot he is. Hey! Don't fall asleep! And your form was terrible! The fuck was that last slash?"

Never mind.

"Fuck you sensei," he managed to force out, and caught a glimpse of his sensei's beaming proud smile, along with rather outraged flashes of red tails before his vision went dark.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Sakusen has picked up some nice habits from his sensei now XD.**

 **So I found out that A/N is Author's Note, which I will be using from now on. Ha, I am LEARNING.**

 **Anyways, thoughts on this chapter are... it's a meh. I was supposed to cover more, but I went over my 6000 word count. Not bad, but not really that good either. Part of the issue is the fact that 3rd person is surprisingly irritating to write properly. Plus, my sentence structure needs work.**

 **Originally, I wanted to do a style that was sort of like ElectraSev7n's story, Vapors. That woman is a master of 3rd person, I swear. Like, it's in third, but she makes it sound like first person thoughts, while also including other character's POV's. It's a beautiful masterpiece. Obviously, I am not that good.**

 **So. This was already an idea that I had, but would you guys like me to switch to first person later on? By later on, I mean like 2 or 3 chapters ahead, when Sakusen can think stuff that's not weird for a 4 year old to think. Then it can be a little like Dreaming of Sunshine, with occasional other character's POV inserted in.**

 **Was leaning toward the idea already, but I want to know what you guys think. Please review and tell me! Also, please say if it is confusing to follow or not. I am really insecure about this for some reason. Love your feedback! Thank you to those who have reviewed and favorited.**


	5. Chapter 5

I know I haven't updated for a while, and that's because, yes Mr. Guest, FINALS. Fuck them. I did pretty well though, so that's good. Almost ready to ship my ass off to college, and then I don't know how I'm going to update. Anyhoo, here's your latest chapter!

* * *

The first thing he felt was the chill. It was really cold. And wet, for some reason. Was he dead? Did dead people feel cold and wet?

"If you find one, you'll have to ask them. We don't know either."

His eyes shot open. That definitely was not a human voice. It spoke his language, but the tone was deep and guttural, like an animalistic growl. And distinctly female. Scarily enough, it was familiar, and he was pretty sure that he hadn't met anything in his life that had made this noise.

The voice did a strange, breathy croon off to his side. Sitting up, he registered the fact that he was somewhere unfamiliar. A small cave, of some sorts. It was dimly illuminated by glowing blue crystals sticking out here and there from the ground and the walls. The same crystals made up the floor of the shallow pool he was currently lying in. Next to him, blue eyes glittering with amusement, was a rather large wolf.

Sakusen would have liked to say that he reacted in a cool and calm manner. But that would have been a lie, and Jiji told him that lies were some of the worst acts you could commit. Which was a little strange, given that his future profession basically demanded it on a daily basis.

Instead, he let out a surprised scream, splashing sparkling sapphire droplets everywhere. He reached for his wakizashi, but it was missing from its usual place on his hip. His weapon holster was still on him, but he couldn't reach for anything inside of it. His hand passed through it. Like he was just a hazy image on a screen - there, but not really _physically_ there. Oh man, he _had_ died, hadn't he? He was a ghost now. Crap.

Shaking water out of its coat with a huff, the wolf looked at him with something that looked a little like bemusement. "You're right, of course. Not about the ghost stuff. You're not really here. This is just a dream. Just, a little different from the usual ones you've been having."

 _Oh thank goodness._ He wasn't dead. He was just in a dream. A really, really weird dream. Sakusen blinked. He hadn't said anything at all, but the wolf still seemed to know what he was thinking. "You can read my mind?" he asked tentatively, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

The wolf bared its sharp teeth in a grin. At least, that's what it looked like. Maybe it was a snarl. "Correct. The pup is quite astute. You don't seem too surprised to see me talk, though."

Well... to be honest, the fact that the wolf could talk was a little farther down on his list of immediate worries. Besides, some of the Inuzuka had dogs that could talk. This wasn't too surprising. But none of them were this huge. The largest canine he'd seen was Kuromaru, Tsume-oba's ninken partner. This wolf was at least a head taller than Kuromaru, and the ninken was taller than him on all four paws. This wolf was a monstrously jumbo-sized animal.

"Who are you? Why am I here? How can you read my mind?" he asked instead. The wolf had probably read his thoughts already, and knew his answer.

As if confirming his suspicions, the wolf let out that same strange croon, and Sakusen realized that it was a laugh. "Those are good questions. Questions that will be answered later. For now, let us discuss why you are here." It knelt down on its haunches, staring at him intently.

He couldn't really put his finger on it before, but he was starting to recall why the wolf's voice was so familiar. The voice calling out to him... it was coming back to him. Sakusen remembered now. His pointer finger flew up at the canine accusingly. "You! You were the one that called out to me! On the battlefield!"

"Before you got smashed into pulp, yes," the wolf agreed with a nod. Its eyes narrowed dangerously into thin slits. "Were you planning to die that day? Is that what you wanted? To be erased from this dimension altogether, after just experiencing a small taste of what your world is actually like?"

Sakusen's shoulders slumped. Remembering that moment brought a lump back in his throat - all of the dead and dying, of the blood painting the sands red and brown, the hopelessness and despair he had felt. He really was weak, wasn't he?

"Are you?" Surprised, Sakusen lifted his head to look at the wolf. "Are you content with being weak? In this world, the weak are those who give up without a fight. If you give up, you are dead." Ignoring his flinch, the wolf continued. "It is either that, or you make yourself strong. What will it be? Will you be strong, or will you be weak?"

Sakusen looked up, seeing the shimmering light of the crystal in the bottom of the pool distorted by the moving water. "I... I want to be strong. But then, at the moment, I felt so weak. Powerless to stop what was in front of me. We're all being used by our villages to fight wars, and for what?" He clenched his fist underwater, feeling the cool wetness rush over his fingers. "I realized that day that I don't understand everything. So it could be that I don't get why we're fighting. Maybe there's a good reason that I didn't think of."

The wolf tilted its head, acknowledging him. Sakusen went on. "But I know that it's wrong. It's wrong to kill someone else you don't know for the sake of some higher purpose. I want the killing to stop. I didn't want to have to kill that person. But he was about to kill my friend. I couldn't let that happen. If the wars didn't exist, and the nations all got along, then we wouldn't have to be put in these situations."

Sakusen lowered his gaze until he was level with the wolf's eyes. "I have an idea for why I'm here. You've probably read my mind already to see what I'm thinking. A summon can read the intentions of their summoner, can't they? I don't know how it works, but I'll say this. I want peace. So I can keep my friends safe, and other people can keep their friends safe. That's why I'll be strong." He extended a hand. "Will you accept that?"

The wolf stared for a long moment, then snorted, looking away. "How naive and idealistic." Sakusen's face froze a little. Was that the wrong answer? "Still, your resolve is remarkable, for one so young. You are the right one. To care about one's own pack, be willing to go to such lengths to keep them safe, and grow strong enough to do so... those are truly the qualities we desire in our summoner."

Sakusen took a sharp inhale. Right on the dot, as usual. Honestly, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out the source of his mysterious dreams. Certain people had an inherent affinity for a certain type of animal, and were connected to the dimension through their chakra. It wasn't that much of a stretch to theorize the rift between dimensions weakening during certain times, letting his subconscious jump ship onto the wolves' forest.

Still, even though he'd had his suspicions, this changed _everything._ Summons were extremely versatile, depending on what they were, but nearly all of them granted a boost in combat capabilities. Some of the greatest ninja were known for their summons, like Jiji and the Sannin. This was great!

The wolf, probably sensing his elation, was quick to shut him down. "You won't be able to summon us for a while. You have neither the proper reserves nor the control needed to call us and maintain the summoning. It will be years before you will be able to do that."

Sakusen deflated like a balloon. Years? That was way too long. He hadn't even lived longer than five of them, and he had to wait even more? Plural, too? Damn. And he thought he had huge amounts of chakra. Did that mean he needed more?

"However," the wolf said, catching his attention, "we do have a certain method of communication available to you. The wolves exist in a separate space-time dimension, not like your frogs and toads and snakes." It sneered when it said the word _snakes._ "The rift between our dimensions is not physical. The waters here are special - they act as portals into separate worlds. Right now, your form is made of the mist created by the pool."

So that was what the pool was. No wonder it felt weird. Reaching out, he realized that he couldn't escape the edge of the water. It was like a cage, sort of. Suddenly, he felt his vision buzz and shift, and the wolf became distorted, like the images on Jiji's television when reception was bad. Wisps of blue smoke wafted out from his form.

"Our time is growing short. We are expecting great things from you. We will meet later when you can become our summoner."

The wolf gave one last grin. "I'm glad we met. You are an interesting human. I wonder how long you can keep your idealism? Before, you wanted to know my name. I am known as Okami. Goodbye, little pup."

As Sakusen's body grew light and spiraled down a dark, twisting tunnel, his last thoughts were, _A wolf named wolf? I can deal with that... I've dealt with worse and less creative before._

* * *

Sakusen opened his eyes, and immediately hissed. Yes, this was definitely the land of the living. He felt like a giant bruise. Oh well. At least he was warm.

His shoulder was patched up, and his left arm was stiff. There was some pressure on his legs, like something was on it, which was a little strange, since he didn't remember getting any leg injuries. His ribcage was wrapped in bandages, and he imagined that his head was the same, judging from the tightness around his skull. He probably looked like a mummy now.

Wincing in pain, he tried using his left arm to sit up, but that didn't work so well. The Chuunin that Itachi had killed had torn through his shoulder on his sword-arm side, and his arm wasn't moving very well. He briefly considered trying to call Okami again to get rid of the soreness and the pain for at least a while, but he figured that she wouldn't be very happy with that, with all the "strong live, weak die" stuff she preached.

Resorting to just raising his head, he looked around. The room was a bright, pastel white that hurt his eyes after spending some time in the darker cave. It was clearly a medical room, with all the medical equipment layering the tables next to him. And in front of him was-

Sakusen froze. What he had mistaken for bandages or a cast on his legs was actually a person, draped over his thighs and soundly sleeping. The figure had...

The figure had red hair. Dimly, he remembered flashes of red before passing out. Only one person in the world he knew had red hair like that.

The person stirred and looked up, and Sakusen found himself staring into the violet eyes of Uzumaki Kushina. His mother.

Tears welled up in her eyes at the sight of him awake, and she lurched forward, grabbing him in a hug, all the while sobbing uncontrollably. Sakusen could only use his right arm to awkwardly hug her back, but it didn't matter. She was finally here. And at least for now, everything he'd done to get to this point was worth it.

* * *

Haori stood outside of the med room, listening in with a smile. She'd gone to fetch Kushina on the battlefield after seeing Sakusen off, nearly getting impaled by a _fucking chain_ in the process. She was a jumpy motherfucker on the battlefield. There had been a brief reunion of sorts, involving trying to give each other a hug while cutting off someone's head at the same time, but it was a nice moment until she'd informed Kushina that her son was missing and quite possibly on the battlefield.

She knew the kid could handle himself pretty well, but she was not expecting to walk into a full-blown fight. Not that she was concerned or anything for the brat's well-being, of course. Things like this made people tough. Well, she might have gotten a _little_ worried when she'd felt those flares of chakra. Nearly every capable sensor on the battlefield had honed into the fight. What was up with that purple, anyway?

She sighed, leaning her head against the wall. By the time she had gotten there to watch, he had killed the second Iwa-nin, and the Kumo squad (fucking bloodline collectors) had been closing in. She was debating on whether or not to interfere or wait, but the other Uchiha kid had gotten there first. That Shunshin usage was impressive. He certainly deserved that Chuunin vest.

But the kid had almost died on her watch. That was a sobering thought. Even before she'd gotten there, from what she heard of the smaller Uchiha, another ninja - a _Chuunin -_ had been killed. Sakusen had faced an Iwa Chuunin all alone. Without Itachi, he most certainly would have died. It was a miracle they were both alive, really. Some god up there was smiling on those two.

Straining her hearing to catch a hint of what else was going on, Haori nearly groaned when more sobbing reached her ears. Kushina had literally been crying for a full five minutes now. She knew that Kushina could get emotional, but this was too long. Time for an intermission.

Kicking open the door with an exuberant shout, she strolled into the room. The kid looked like shit. Torso, head, and shoulder wrapped in bandages, but he had the biggest smile on his face she'd seen ever since the first time she'd allowed him to use his wakizashi in training instead of the bokken. Which reminded her. It was time to up his training. No more stupid shit like that. A stab to the shoulder because he couldn't react properly during an attack? Shameful.

"Guess whooo?" she sang in a cheerful tone. Kushina looked up at her, and she suddenly remembered that she should probably tell Kushina what had really happened. It was the right thing to do, but... she knew that the woman would have no problem smashing her face into the floor for letting her baby out to fight, even if the Uzumaki was nearly 10 years her junior.

Some secrets were best left untouched, she decided.

"Hey sensei," Sakusen rasped. Kushina's hair suddenly rose, nine swaying appendages hanging threateningly above her head. Haori gulped. The brat hadn't snitched on her, right? Shit shit shit. What did she do?

"Haori?" Kushina asked with an innocently sweet smile on her face. "You want to tell me just why Sakusen was out there fighting? And just _where_ exactly he learned how to curse?"

Fuck.

* * *

"Hey Kaa-san?" Something was missing, and Sakusen had finally figured out what. It took a bit long, but he blamed the drugs. "Where's Tou-san?"

Kushina, back from giving Sensei a dressing down (holy crap she was scary as hell and he would _never_ curse in front of her), instantly slumped over a little, all expression dying away. Sakusen's heart nearly stopped. The look on her face was empty and vacant, yet full of despair. Something had happened.

"What happened to him?" he pressed, a little more panicked now. Small tears were now forming in the corners of Kushina's pretty, violet eyes.

 _Oh no. Oh nonono._ What happened? Jiji had told him that they were inseparable ever since their Genin days. If they were apart now...

"Did... did he die?" Kushina flinched, finally looking at him with her mouth open in shock.

"No!" Thank goodness, he was scared. "No, nothing like that. He's out on the front lines. He insisted that he wanted to stay, after-" She choked up, and a tear trickled down her face. Sakusen carefully wiped it away with his hand, and she grabbed it, squeezing tightly.

"You remember Obito, right?" Her voice was impossibly soft, and this time, he knew for sure what was going to come out of her mouth. "Obito died on a mission after the cave he was in collapsed on him. He managed to save his teammates, but he didn't make it out of the rubble."

Sakusen silently mourned, his own tears forming. He was close to Obito, since he was always around Rin. They usually bought him taiyaki, and while Obito was a bit annoying to be around at times, he was the nicest person Sakusen had known. Obito's chakra was bright and sunny, but there was a bit of a dark patch dredged underneath. All Uchiha seemed to have that, though.

Kushina got into bed with him, gently wrapping her arms around his body, being careful of his injuries. "You knew him pretty well, right? He always talked about you, and how you were going to be such a great ninja - that you were smarter than him, even. Your father was pretty shaken by the event, so he vowed to not return until the war was over. You know," her eyes sparkled, "there's talk of him becoming the next Hokage? You could be the son of the Hokage soon! Isn't that cool?"

"Wow," Sakusen breathed. He knew his dad was good, but he didn't know that he was _Kage_ good. And Sakusen could respect that decision, to stay and fight until the end.

"They call him the Yellow Flash. He has bright yellow hair, and that's the only thing you can see when he becomes serious because he moves so quickly." She kissed the top of his forehead. "I'm sure you'll grow up to become a great ninja too. You can carry on Obito's will, while Kakashi carries his legacy. Now go to sleep. I'm sure you're still tired. You did fight against a Chuunin, even if Iwa's ninja suck ass."

Sakusen giggled. "I'm not tired, though." That was a lie. He was probably on sleep meds or something, judging from his sluggishness. He could feel his eyes slowly closing, and he was already drifting off, safe and happy within the embrace of his mother for the first time.

* * *

It would take a whole week for Sakusen's injuries to heal enough so that he could travel back safely. He _could_ just hop on the back of someone going back home, but Kushina was taking no chances. Having her son nearly die in front of her once was enough panic for one lifetime, he supposed.

Itachi wasn't going back either. Fugaku apparently knew Kushina quite well, which made sense because of her and Mikoto's friendship, and had been threatened by her to deliver Sakusen home safely. She wouldn't be going home for the next two weeks, since that was when her term ended.

This meant that for the next few days, the outpost had two bored children wandering around everywhere. Well, two bored children plus their chaperone. Shisui had been downright furious when Sakusen had hobbled out with Itachi for the first time. "Stupid kid, I was literally gone for a couple of months - not even three full months, and you pull this crap while I'm not assigned to guard you..." Kushina had just looked on approvingly throughout his rant, punctuated with flailing arms and fists landing painfully on heads.

Currently, they were walking along the border of the outpost, staying close within the boundaries. Sakusen took a breath and grimaced a little. There was still some pain left in his chest, but nowhere near as bad as the first time.

"How did you do it, anyways?" Shisui was glaring suspiciously at him. "The village is locked tight during wartime, and you're literally one of the most protected people in there. You couldn't have gone out by yourself like that without raising the alarm."

Sakusen broke out in a cold sweat. Haori-sensei still wanted her alibi safe, so he had to resort to the old "oh I'm just really good at doing the impossible" excuse, and hope people bought it. Once he'd woken up the second time, he'd recounted his escape tale to his mother and watched as she fell into hysterics. Not at him, but at the gate guards and Jiji.

"Oh, well," he said, scratching the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly, "I pretended to be sick so no one would have to guard me, and I just... snuck out when the gate guards weren't looking?" He fixed his I'm-totally-telling-the-truth face on. Shisui did not relent. This was bad. "So," he said desperately, trying to change the subject, "When did you get the vest? I didn't know you became Chuunin."

Shisui did an abrupt about-face and beamed, fingering the collar of his flak jacket. "Just got it a month ago! Man, I was so nervous during the exams, 'cause you know during wartime, we host our own Chuunin Exams? So everyone knew how I fought, since I was pretty famous in the Academy and in my Genin days. You guys have no idea how happy I was when Sandaime-sama called my name for promotion. After that, I was sent out with my team. My old team," he finished, trailing off awkwardly.

None of them caught Itachi's unreadable glance in their direction. "Hey, Shisui," he said quietly, "What do you think about the war? Why do we have it?"

Both of the boys instantly sobered up. Sakusen felt a little guilty. He never really thought about how Itachi would feel, having to do the same thing he did and watch the same things that he watched. At least he had a weird wolf therapist to knock him out of his thoughts and back on track. Itachi had none of the sort. Well. Probably no one else had a wolf looking after them like he did.

Shisui stood in thought for a moment, then gestured for the boys to follow him. He led them through the camp, past the ninja on break and up the watch tower, where he shouted to the guard on duty. "Hey, Kaiseki! Wanna take a break? I'll take your watch for an hour or two!"

The guard was more than happy to take a break from looking at nothing, and Sakusen and Itachi exchanged glances and shrugged. The small group climbed up to the top, and Sakusen watched as Shisui strode over to the railing and leaned over, sighing against the cool wind.

"C'mere, you guys. Feel this breeze. Isn't it nice? And the sun keeps you nice and warm. The Nara clan have it right. Days like this are to be enjoyed."

Sakusen was the first to come over, and carefully set his right arm against the edge. Itachi followed behind him. Both of them were barely tall enough to reach the edge. But Shisui was right. The wind rippled through his hair like his mother when she ran her fingers through the locks. The sunlight was warm on his face, and he shut his eyes for a moment.

"It's nice," Itachi said pensively. "Yep," agreed Sakusen. Shisui smiled. He had his Sharingan active, and Sakusen didn't think that it was just for surveillance purposes. "Look out there. What do you see?"

Sakusen craned his neck out to look farther. There was nothing but green foliage stretching across the landscape, and at the very edge of the horizon he could see the beginning of the desert to Suna. Even farther away, he could make out the great mountain peaks dotted with white. They seemed as small as pebbles to him, from this distance. The sky was a bright shade of blue, with clouds scattered here and there. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's peaceful, isn't it?" Shisui said. "You guys might not know this, but about a couple of weeks ago, we had a skirmish in this area." He pointed to a blackened patch about half a mile away that Sakusen hadn't noticed before. "Over there, one of my buddies used a Fire Release jutsu, and it scorched some of the trees. And there," he waved his hand towards a treeless clearing, "the Suna-nin we were fighting alongside with used a Wind Release jutsu. Cut down some of the trees there, so it's empty."

The older Uchiha rested both elbows on the railing, red eyes moving everywhere. Like he was memorizing the image, Sakusen realized. "But," he continued, "you wouldn't know that. Not unless you were specifically searching for those signs."

Both of the boys nodded, still a little confused at where Shisui was going with this train of thought. "I think that this picture right here is beautiful. There's no conflict. Sure, there are those subtle signs, but for me, that just adds to the meaning. That before this peace, we had war. And we worked hard to end the war, so we can have days like these, and not have to worry about if we're going to die, or if our comrades are going to die." His voice cracked on the word "comrades," and Sakusen wondered if Shisui had someone that he lost.

"You asked me before, why we have wars. It's simple, really. We don't get along. Different nations have different interests, and sometimes those interests will clash with the interests of another nation. That is the start of all wars." He took a deep breath. "What I believe, is that self sacrifice is the mark of a true shinobi. A nameless nobody, protecting peace from within its shadow. To prevent such wars from happening, and stop them fast if they do. That's my ninja way."

Shisui turned to face them fully, and it was the first time Sakusen had seen him so serious. "I'm not telling you to believe in what I believe in. I'm not telling you to fight for what I fight for. I just used this as an example. You," he punctuated with a poke of his finger to Itachi's forehead, "need to find what you believe in on your own. That's not something I can tell you. But I'll tell you guys this."

Shisui grinned once more, creasing his eyes and giving them a thumbs-up. "I'll always be there for you, like an older brother. And you can count on me. I'll never betray you guys."

* * *

Shisui's speech must have stirred something up in Itachi, because until it was time to go, Sakusen rarely saw him venture outside of his room. Only at mealtimes did they see each other, and Itachi's tear-troughs seemed to lengthen over time, giving him a tired appearance. Mikoto-oba would be worried.

Kaa-san was busy, as usual. She was in charge of taking inventory of all material, and her voice could frequently be heard through walls while yelling at others. Every night, they snuggled together in bed, making up for lost time.

Haori-sensei was conspicuously absent for a while, and he thought that she'd gone back alone until Kaa-san had informed him that she was out with the scouting party. He felt genuine pity for any enemy ninja she might stumble across. They wouldn't be making it out in one piece.

The only one he had to talk to was Okami, in his dreams. He had elected to keep his knowledge of his summons a secret, at least until he learned how to actually summon them. He might not be taken seriously, since there was zero proof to back up his claim. Besides, he wanted it to be a surprise. He grinned, imagining the surprise on his parent's and his friend's faces after revealing his new partners.

All too soon, Sakusen found himself packing for the trip ahead. He was slated to reach full recovery and use of his limbs by the end of the month, nearly two weeks away, but the medical ninja had received a surprise when they had scanned him, only to find out that he was already almost fully healed. "Uzumaki tend to heal a bit faster," his mother had said with a frown. "Maybe you inherited the good genes!"

He slumped down on the bed with a sigh. Someone knocked on the door brusquely, and he looked up as it opened to see Haori, back fro her excursions. "Time to go, little warrior. Konoha is waiting, and so is your punishment," she sang out. Much too happily.

"I could be in less trouble if you told them the truth, y'know," he said grumpily. "What happens if I mess up my story? Then they find out you've been lying, too."

"Oh, but you won't mess up," she said, as her eyes shone with a malicious light, "Because if you do, we will be undergoing my _extra_ special training course that I reserve for only the toughest and hardest ANBU I can find."

Sakusen looked down, and Haori frowned when she couldn't get the usual amusing reaction out of him. Why was he moping? It wasn't like he was leaving his only family member be- Oh. "You know," she started with a sly smile, "Kids like you just have to whine a lot about something, and they usually get their way. Especially if they have a mother that hasn't had the chance to dote on them for a while."

He groaned, falling back onto the bed. "Was I that easy to read?" he whined pitifully.

She snorted. "Absolutely. You're no ANBU at hiding emotions. And we're trained to read them. You're an open book. Now, go tell her what you want, before it's too late."

That was Haori-sensei - straight, blunt, and to-the-point. No fucking around, as she put it. But still.

"Won't it be bad if I stay? Because I'm just a burden, aren't I? And I'm a vulnerability if there's an attack."

"What attack?" she asked. "Haven't you heard? You were literally wandering around the whole compound for days on end, and you didn't hear the gossip going around? We need to work on your information gathering skills."

His face morphed into his confused expression. The people talked a lot here, yeah, but it was mostly grown-up stuff, and things he didn't really know about. "Wait," he protested, "I didn't hear anything big, though. What happened?"

"Your dad, kid," she responded with a head-knock, "He killed nearly a thousand Iwa-nin up at the border area. They're all ready to surrender now, we got a team coming in soon with the treaty."

"What? Holy sh-" Sakusen couldn't stop the profanity from coming up, but Haori-sensei beat him to it by literally strangling him with her arms. "Shut the hell up, kid, and don't fucking swear so loud! Kushina's gonna fucking tear me a new one! And as much as I might like the idea on a different day, I don't need a new one!" she scream-whispered, glancing furtively towards the open door.

Sakusen wriggled free like a greased piglet, gasping for air. He wiped his mouth, glaring at his sensei. A familiar smirk crossed his face, and he watched his sensei freeze in place at the sight of his expression. "Well, now," he said, wiping his mouth, "I guess if you don't want her knowing, you owe me a favor, then, right?"

The very same smirk crossed Haori's face, and she leered at him. "Look who's getting all high and mighty? I assure you, any punishment I can dole out to you will be far more worse than what Kushina will do to me. I'm still your appointed sensei, after all. At least you're learning how to blackmail people. Basics of politics and ninja dealings."

He slumped, defeated. "Fine," he muttered, "but are you sure that no one's going to attack? Because I really don't need a repeat of last time."

She waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Yeah, we got everyone. Why do you think we sent out extra patrols? We needed to clear up the stragglers, so the inside stays safe." Haori clapped her hands excitedly, as if remembering something, and rummaged through her hip-pouch. "Speaking of which, wanna see what we did to them? I have some pictures here. There were a couple enemies left, so we got a bunch of stakes and hung them everywhere like Christmas deco-"

But Sakusen was already long gone at this point, choosing wisely to run out the door and to the outpost entrance. He did not need any more nightmare fuel, thank you very much.

* * *

"Where is he?" grumbled Fugaku. "He's late. We're on a tight schedule here. Academy registrations are soon, and I want to enroll Itachi as soon as I can."

Kushina searched the compound, eyes scanning over all the buildings and the doors. Sakusen wasn't that late, Fugaku was just overreacting. Poor Mikoto, how could she stand this ass? She was much too good for him. She deserved much better.

Glancing back, she saw all the Uchiha were looking at her, Itachi excluded, with irritable expressions. Oops, had she said that out loud? She would have to improvise. "Hehe, I mean, Mikoto is such a lucky woman, isn't she?" Fugaku's shoulders relaxed somewhat, but she couldn't resist, and she hit him with her next barb. "Knowing that her son is _safe_ ,and not mentally scarred in any way from insensitive acts like _bringing him to see the battle."_

His scowl returned, and Kushina giggled internally. Okay, maybe he was a _little_ cute when he got all mad. But that was it. No redeeming factors at all.

"If I recall correctly, my son wasn't the only one to be out on the field that day," he countered smoothly. "At least I was making sure that he was safe."

 _This bitch did not._ She would have to give the Sandaime a scolding when she got back. Who in the world lost a kid, for goodness sakes? "Well, my son was able to sneak out from under the Sandaime's watch, and was able to tail _your_ squad completely unnoticed straight to the battlefield. And he killed a Chuunin."

His scowl was back in full force, and Kushina stifled a victory yell. There wasn't any way she would win in an argument with him, especially when his argument did have a kernel of truth to it, but both of them were wisely shying away from the fact that Sakusen was basically raised without parents because they were busy. One of them was doing so because realizing the fact hurt her very much, and the other because he knew how she felt about it, and prodding at that fact would only turn explosive.

"None of us detected a signature in a five-mile radius," he said stiffly, eyes narrowed, "which means he wasn't tracking, he was following the path. It is easy enough for even a toddler to do so. Not to mention, Itachi managed to kill a Chuunin as well."

 _This guy..._ "Well, he would have had to plan out and find where you all were going beforehand," she snapped, hair slowly rising. The other Uchiha, including Itachi, slowly started backing away. This conflict could very quickly turn volatile, and none of them wanted to be around to see it. "And," she added viciously, "Sakusen is skilled in kenjutsu!"

"Itachi can throw shuriken and kunai better than genin," Fugaku shot back, arms folded, not budging an inch.

"Sakusen has high chakra levels, more than anyone I've ever seen at that age!" Kushina growled. Her hair was beginning to whip back and forth like demonic tails.

The Uchiha clan head activated his Sharingan. "Itachi has much better control over his chakra!"

"Sakusen can plan out excursions outside the village at his age!"

"Itachi is the most intelligent of all in his age!"

Neither side would budge. Fugaku was much too prideful to back down from a fight, especially one concerning the abilities of his son, and Kushina's temper would keep her going for a while. This was a battle between parents over their precious children. The rest of the squad were reduced to taking cover behind the trees, shaking from the Killing Intent being thrown around.

This was the scene that Sakusen arrived to, huffing and puffing from running all the way. His eyes grew wide. Fugaku's Sharingan was activated, gleaming red and swirling, and Kaa-san's hair was swaying back and forth like tails, and she was giving off a scary red aura. There was only one thing to say here.

Both were so focused in each other that they almost didn't notice the boy shouting at them, and even then it took a couple of moments to process the words.

"Hey! Just fuck already!"

He had no idea what it meant, of course, but Haori-sensei had told him that it tended to break up fights pretty easily. He'd tried it once, on a pair of Chuunin shouting at each other, and both had spluttered incomprehensibly before being broken apart by their grinning Jounin-sensei.

Sakusen was a little confused, though, because Fugaku had an absolutely scandalized look on his face, and Kaa-san looked pretty shocked. But they stopped fighting, right? So it worked?

A choking noise came from behind him, and he whipped around to see Haori-sensei looking like she had just swallowed a frog. He frowned. "Well, you said to use that if two people were fighting, right?"

"Not in front of _her,"_ she hissed, "That's a fucking _swear word!_ What did we go over literally a minute ago!"

" _That_ was a swear too?" he asked, bewildered, "I thought because it was in a different context, it meant something different! You use it in so many ways! They can't all mean the same thing!"

Haori was more concerned with the way Kushina was slowly swiveling her head to look at her than shutting Sakusen up. She laughed nervously, patting Sakusen on the head. "Whatever you got to say, kid, say it right fucking now and I mean it." She turned to wave at the previously arguing duo and waved, talking in rapid-fire spurts. "HeygottagoseeyousoonKushi-chaaan!"

Plumes of dust rose down the path as Haori-sensei made the most liberal use of Shunshin he'd ever seen before in his short life. Kushina slowly turned, hair whipping faster than before, and he quickly caught on. He couldn't take kenjutsu classes without a sensei, after all. She owed him a lot after this.

"Hey, Kaa-san?" he called out. The situation was not looking good for Sensei.

"Wait here, Sakusen," she murmured, "I have something to catch right now. I'll be back soon."

"Wait, I want to stay here!" he cried out. "I want to stay at the outpost!"

That got her attention, at least. The red aura settled down, and she did a one-eighty to face him with a guilty look. "Sakusen, I'm sorry, but I can't. I really want to stay with you, but it's just too dangerous out here, and-"

"Why not?" a gruff voice interrupted. A mountain of a man with big, burly arms and shades was standing under the gate to the outpost, leaning against it with his arms crossed, and an amused expression on his face.

"Taicho!" Kushina gasped. "What are you doing out here!"

"Half of my men are complaining about the amount of chakra and Killing Intent you guys are throwing out up here, so I came to check," he said dryly. "The war is almost over, you know that. What's the harm in letting him stay for a while?"

"But, there could still be an attack, and he could get hurt," she whimpered. "I just want him to be safe, until we come back."

"Aww, come on, you think he won't be safe here? He can learn how Shinobi life works, maybe do some work himself. Like an internship," the man cut in. "Besides," he added as an afterthought, "you think he won't be safer here than back at home with that nice sensei of his?"

Kushina hesitated, and Sakusen could clearly see her wavering. All he needed was one last push. It was time to use his secret weapon.

"P-please? I'll be good?" he asked, with big, watery eyes and his hands clasped in front of him.

Kushina caved horribly, bursting into tears right then and there, and bringing Sakusen into a sweeping hug. Out of her line of sight, he grinned at his savior, and Mountain Man lifted his shades briefly to give him a wink. He clapped his hands. "Now that that's settled, we can give you assignments tomorrow. Uchiha Squad, I believe you are free to leave. Sorry for the delay." And with a wave, Mountain Man disappeared back into the compound.

Fugaku seemed more irritated than anything at having to wait for so long, but he dismissed them with a grunt and turned away to leave. Kushina released him, and Sakusen looked back at Itachi and waved, grinning. The Uchiha boy smiled back and waved, then joined the squad in parting ways with the outpost.

Feeling a fist land on his head, he managed to tilt his head up far enough to look into his mother's eyes and her demonic smile. "Now, since we get to spend more time with each other, I think we'll work on curing that cursing habit of yours, hm?" He gulped. Nothing good was promised from that expression.

* * *

 **Omake**

* * *

Biwako frowned. Something was amiss. Something was definitely not right.

"Hiruzen, where's Sakusen?" she asked, looking around the house.

The Sandaime puffed on his pipe contently, reading his newspaper. "He was sick today, wasn't he? I'm sure he's in his room."

"That's the thing. He's not." Biwako said, going back upstairs to check once more.

It was Hiruzen's turn to frown. That was strange. He was extending his senses, but nothing was registering except for his, his wife's, and the ANBU on guard's signatures. Something was wrong.

Biwako's voice carried from upstairs, as she shouted. "His sword is missing! So is his pack!"

His eyebrows creased, then he relaxed. There was no sign of a struggle, and his ANBU had reported back that Sakusen was well, albeit just a tad nervously. The house was locked, nothing had penetrated the seals, so it was obvious that Sakusen had gone out training. Yes, he nodded sagely, that was it. Sometimes, in life, the simplest solutions were the best and most correct.

Biwako's scream alerted him, and the Sandaime Hokage stood up so fast that his pipe fell out of his mouth and his coffee cup fell over with a crash.

The thumping of feet told him that Biwako was coming, and when she came down, her face was livid. "Look at this," she hissed, shoving a small note in his chest.

 _Hey there Sandaime-sama~,_

 _Just wanted to let you know that Sakusen may have hightailed it out of the village to chase after that Uchiha kid. I'll go after him, but he's a fast motherfucker, so it could take a while. He might even reach the battlefield if he's lucky. But don't worry, that's a good thing! Because he gets to see what he's up against early! It's like having a cheat sheet to the life of a ninja! Just think of it like this, he'll have an advantage over his classmates! Not saying, of course, that I will let that happen, but on the off chance that this unlikely situation does occur, I'm just informing you of the benefits of this happening. I'll be leaving soon, but he's a slippery one, because, after all,_ I'm _the one who trained him. Wish me luck :)._

 _~Haori_

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Nothing to worry about, I'm sure it's just a joke. She wouldn't let that happen, Haori is one of my most trusted and dependable operatives. He will be back in no time."

Biwako sighed. "If you say so..."

Days later, he was furiously writing a mission prompt for a sensory squad to be sent out on a Search and Rescue mission. Of course, he bemoaned, since when in his life was the solution ever _simple?_

* * *

A/N

Holy crap again I'm reaally sorry for the delay and very annoyed with the way that my computer automatically changes my words into something I didn't mean. Anyways, I gave you all an extra long chapter, plus an omake. I don't know, I have a plan for the omake series later on, but not now, so I will have to work to think of something. I have really fun ideas for the omake in the future, though. Trust me.

Anyways, thanks for sticking with me this far. I know my writing in the beginning chapters is a bit bad, and I will try to remedy that in later chapters. Might go back to fix, might not.

Thanks for reading you guys! Let me know what you think in the reviews please! Thanks to all who have reviewed/followed/favorited thus far, your support is greatly appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

I should probably proofread this story. I have a horrible habit of not doing so.

FUck it.

Here ya go!

* * *

The good news of staying behind was that he healed much faster than what the medics had predicted, had he actually made the journey back to Konoha on foot. Less stress on the repairing muscles and fractured bones would mean quicker recovery, and he was glad to ditch the cast and crutches.

The bad news was that once the report had come out, Mountain Man decided that it was time for him to pull his own weight around the base. Namely, by making him run errands around the compound.

That was why Sakusen was currently struggling, red-faced, under a pile of boxes as tall as he was. He was given the privilege of staying within the general sphere of duty of the supply room, where his mother worked, so that he could be around her more often, which he was thankful for. Of course, it meant more work than some other stations, but at least it wasn't like, bathroom cleaning duty. That would have sucked, big time.

Kicking open the door to the supply room with his foot, he dropped the boxes on the tiled floor, kicking up a cloud of dust. Today was busier than usual, because it was restocking day. Konoha sent frequent supply teams to its bases to deliver food and supplies, as well as to check up on the status of the inhabitants. This was better because hunting for food while near a surveillance outpost was not the wisest thing to do, apparently. It was hard to differentiate between hunting teams and attackers, not including the mess that was created when scouting teams were added to the mix.

"Having a fun time?"

Sakusen looked up dully through sweaty bangs at his mother smiling at him, perched on top of a stool. "It's so much work," he groaned, limply hanging over a box like a noodle. An eerie rattling noise echoed through the room, and he was picked up off the ground from the hood of his jacket by a glowing golden chain.

"Now, now, that's not the attitude to have," Kushina tsked, not looking away from her notepad while checking off items. "Work is important here at the base! We can't have one person slacking off, or it affects everyone else!"

"Like the system that Jiji has in his office," Sakusen mused, still hanging like a puppy. His mom looked up, confused, and he elaborated. "If the Chuunin don't do their work filing papers, then Jiji can't stamp them, and things can't get approved!"

"That's right," she nodded encouragingly. "I'm impressed. My baby is smart!" When he grinned back in response, she unhooked the chain point from his hood, dropping him to the floor in a heap. "But, my baby still has to do work. Later, if you show them how smart you are, then they'll promote you! Then you can do less work, and more of the stuff I do."

Privately, Sakusen didn't think his mother had gotten the managing job out of being super smart. Not that she wasn't, of course, but of all the department managers he'd seen, his mother was the most effective. Because she was scary. Super super scary. That kind of thing was probably a better qualifier than being smart.

The chain point still floating in the air wiggled at him. "Lunch is in a quarter of an hour, so it's not that far away. Did you do everything on your list?"

Ignoring the question, he looked up from his vantage point on the floor. "How do you do that? The chain thingy," he specified with a wave of his hand.

His mother hummed, and looked thoughtful. "I don't know, I guess I've never really tried to explain how I do it. It's an Uzumaki thing. We have the ability to manifest our chakra in chains, and they're really good for hitting stuff, or for using our fuinjutsu through them. Personally, I use them more for fuinjutsu purposes, 'cause it's more fun to hit stuff with my hands, y'know?"

Sakusen laughed nervously. "Yeah..." He cleared his throat. "Does that mean no one else can do it? Is it like a bloodline then?"

Kushina shook her head. "No, it's just something that only we know how to do. It's a technique that can be taught, but it's super hard, and our clan has a certain affinity for making the chains. Other people can do it, but it would take a lot more work."

"So it's like learning a nature transformation that you don't have an affinity for," he summarized. Kushina blinked. How did he know about nature transformation? He was smarter than he let on. Ooh, her little boy was a genius like Minato!

Staving away her bubbling pride, she corrected him. "That's a good leap, but I think it's actually harder than learning a new nature transformation. I guess it's as hard as learning an S-rank technique of an affinity you don't have."

He propped his head up on his hands. "Do you know any S-rank techniques? Really cool ones?"

Kushina grinned. "Yep! Your Kaa-san is pretty strong, y'know? I know a couple!"

Sakusen let his mouth form into an O. "Wow, really? What are they? Tell me, please?"

His mom deflated a little. "Well, one of them is really big. And I can't use it when I want to, only when I get mad... But it's really big! It can blow this whole place up, and then some!" She picked up some more steam when she saw the silent _whoa_ form on her son's lips. "And the second one can rip out someone's soul and seal it away! Isn't that awesome?"

Sakusen started sweating a little nervously. He could see why Sensei and her were friends now.

"Ah, but," she interrupted, "you die at the end of it. So, you won't be seeing me use that one soon, hopefully."

"Yeah, that sounds bad," he agreed. He took a quick peek at the clock. "What else can you do? I tried looking you up in the village register, but I couldn't really find a lot. How come?"

Kushina paused a little, and quickly started talking again, but he had already noticed the slight hesitation. "Ah, yeah, they classified some of my information. But now that you mention it, it does look a little suspicious if a lot is missing or gone... I should probably have them update it soon..." She paused again, brow furrowing in thought. "I'll tell you when we get back home, okay? Kaa-san has a lot of things she has to keep secret, so that's why we can't talk about it here, okay? I promised to tell you," she assured him.

Secrets? Was it because she was a foreigner? That was weird, but it did make sense. "What about Tou-san? What things can he do?"

"Well," Kushina began, "he can do Hiraishin and Rasen-"

The buzzer sounded, startling the red-haired woman. "That's the lunch bell... when did time pass so quickly?" she muttered, checking the clock. A thought occurred to her, and she looked down at her boy, who had a smug smile plastered on his face. "Oh you!" she exclaimed, hands on her hips, "Did you start all that just to stall for time after I told you to work?"

"Well, you did tell me to be smart," he said, still grinning. "So I just thought of a way to pass the time. It worked, too."

Kushina couldn't hold back her laughter and nearly fell over, clutching her stomach. "Oh, I should have known something was off. Asking me all those questions just to stall until lunch," she grumbled, picking herself off the floor. Grabbing her bag, she turned around to search for something in the boxes, when she heard the plaintive voice behind her.

"Well, it wasn't just to stall... I really did want to know more, but we never really have time. Once we get back to the rooms, you're always really tired, and so you need your sleep."

Looking back over her shoulder, Sakusen was now sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling sadly. Something in her broke, and Kushina quickly enveloped him in a hug.

"Sorry, sweetie," she mumbled into his hair, "I'm so sorry. Really. I was planning to go home after the war was done and start things from there, once I had time, but I'm just not good at this," she confessed. "It's like I'm meeting you for the first time - which is a little true, I guess, since I'm sure you don't remember me too much from before. I guess it's like I'm just meeting a stranger, and I'm just getting to know them. And," she added, " you wouldn't know it, just by looking at me, but I'm really bad with meeting new people."

He laughed. "Really? I thought you would be really good with meeting new people."

Kushina smiled ruefully, and tugged on a strand of her red hair. "It's because of this. My hair was almost always an insecurity for me, until your father made me love it." Her smile turned into something more genuine then. "But still, other people think it's a little weird. Because it's so bright, and it stands out a lot."

"Well, I like it," he said firmly. When she looked down at him, surprise written on her face, Sakusen reached up and twirled her hair between his fingers. "I wish I had your hair. It's so nice and pretty. I don't get why you would feel bad about it. It's beautiful."

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away just as fast as they came. "There are some important words I say to the men who compliment my hair, and I want to share them with you too." She kissed his forehead. "I love you."

Sakusen sniffled a little, hearing the emotion clouding his mother's voice. He hugged her back, rubbing out his eyes on her shirt. "I love you too, Kaa-san." Pulling back, he stared into her eyes. "I don't care if you're not good at this. Just, if you can tell me things about you, that would be nice. I always wanted to meet you, so that's why I didn't go back to Konoha with them. I really like spending time with you."

She sniffled too, and soon enough both of them were bawling their eyes out, and they probably would have gone on for a while if a familiar gravelly voice on the loudspeaker hadn't interrupted them. "Alright, break it up. It was cute at first, but now the guys want to throw up. Hurry the hell up and get lunch before the food is out."

"Mountain Man," Sakusen grumbled. He must have been watching through the security camera network.

Kushina was not so complacent. "The hell, Taicho?" she screeched. "We were having a bonding moment! And you ruined it! Who are you showing this to?"

"Oh, it's only being broadcasted to the entire lunch area," Mountain Man's voice crackled with an amused air. Laughter could be heard in the background. "Nothing _too_ big."

Kushina groaned and glared at the offending surveillance camera. "And," Mountain Man added, "I'm disappointed. Is that all it takes for you to fall for someone? For them to compliment your hair? I thought I taught you better than that. I'll have to test Minato again, won't I?"

Sakusen watched as his mother's face burned crimson. "It means a lot to me, y'know!" she shouted. Grabbing up her stuff with a huff, she stormed out of the room, with Sakusen trailing her with a grin. He wouldn't miss what came next in the dining area, not for all the taiyaki in the world.

* * *

As it turned out, the wreckage in the dining area was contained to a minimum. Through a group effort, everyone present assured Kushina that they thought it was sweet, especially the women. Only Mountain Man suffered any damage. And the doors he was thrown through. Kaa-san had monstrous strength when she wanted to use it.

Lunch in the outpost was not as bad as many would have assumed. It was curry with rice today, as well as Kushina's baked sweets for dessert. She was an extraordinary cook, and a lot of people teased her, saying that if she kept spoiling them like this, they would have to learn how to use Akimichi techniques. Sakusen agreed, munching down the sweet anpan. He would have to ask her to try making taiyaki later on.

Kushina was in the middle of conversing with her other friends when a thought struck her, and she turned to point at Sakusen. "You," she said sternly, shaking her finger, "are not doing that again. I know it's hard work, but it has to be done. You have to do it."

Was it was too much to ask that she had forgotten that already? He scratched his head and laughed nervously, then groaned and sunk down on the tabletop. "If I could like, split myself, this would be a lot easier," he bemoaned. The proverbial lightbulb went off in his head, and he shot up. Split himself in two? The clone jutsu did that, didn't it?

He took a look at the clock. He still had a good amount of time left for lunch break, and his next errand wasn't due for a while now. If he could get this right, his life would be exponentially simpler than before. Stuffing some more anpan into his bag, he waved at his mother and dashed off to his room.

"Where's he going?" one of Kushina's friends asked. She shrugged, then smiled. "He's probably going to do something really smart. You know, my son is a genius?" Kushina proclaimed smugly. They all groaned, one of them smacking her on the back. " _Your_ kid? A genius? Must be all Minato, then, eh?" Baring her teeth in a vicious smile, the red-haired woman playfully growled. She could do for a fight, she supposed.

* * *

Sakusen was proud of himself. It had only taken an hour to get the Clone Jutsu right, and only because it was hard to funnel chakra into such a developed and intricate construct. He'd considered changing up the hand seals, like the time when he'd climbed trees, but was quickly discouraged from the idea. Finding hand seals for a jutsu that sent chakra outside the body to form a construct identical in form to the user's own was much, much harder as opposed to finding seals to a jutsu that helped channel chakra flow. He would just have to do it the textbook way for now, and experiment later once he had more time.

That was about where his happiness ended, because as it turned out, the reason the Clone Jutsu was so damn hard was because the construct was fragile. Scratch that, it wasn't even _there._ It was literally so watered down that it was like a small cloud of chakra. Chakra smoke, basically. And that's what it actually turned into when he dispelled it. In short, useless for his purposes.

He literally felt like crying. An hour, wasted. Sure, it would probably help him in the academy, since it was a basic go-to jutsu, but it was still _useless._ Okay, so maybe not completely useless as a sort of diversion, but any ninja worth their bounty would probably be able to tell which was an illusion, and which was real. Plus, the fact that these were intangible? Grass didn't crush beneath them, sand didn't carry their footprints, rocks didn't move with their feet. Experienced ninja would be able to tell right away.

He laid down on the bed, and was about to call it a day (ha, who was he fooling, he still had duties) when he remembered that big scroll in Jiji's office. Soon to be his father's office, if what Kaa-san said was true. Anyways, the scroll had some interesting content in it, and he probably wouldn't have remembered most of the stuff if he didn't have copied down in a separate scroll.

Lunging for his bag, he rifled through the contents, until - victory! He knew he wouldn't forget it. Unfurling the scroll, he pored through the contents. He thought he remembered something about clones. Better ones, hopefully, since he couldn't imagine anything less useful than an intangible clone. It would be seriously hard to disappoint him at this point.

Sakusen scanned the list, going over each jutsu he had recorded, while letting out occasional pulses of sensing chakra. It... probably wouldn't do for someone to see him with this. There had to be a reason why the big scroll was there, right? It was even hidden in the corner of Jiji's desk. That meant there was some good stuff in it, and he didn't exactly have a lot of time to go over it in detail. Come to think of it, that was the day before he had met Shisui, too, so he never really thought of using the scroll.

"Different sealing thingies... Dead Demon Consuming Seal? Sounds weird and badass... Eight Trigrams Sealing... Multiple - that's it! Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He had no idea what a shadow clone was, so maybe it was easier to start with the actual Shadow Clone jutsu... but when did he ever do things by halves? No going back now. There was a little guilt in him for using this, especially since it was safeguarded, but this was important. He would just burn the scroll afterwards or something.

"There's only one hand seal. That's not right, is it? It's a pretty good jutsu, so why only one?" he wondered. Oh well. He knew he didn't make a mistake. Except for spelling. Three-year-old him had atrocious spelling, and while current four-year-old him wasn't much better on that front, at least his handwriting was neater. Perks of learning how to use a sword, he supposed. Finer muscle movement, and muscle buildup - oh, he was getting off-track again. This was becoming a bad habit of his.

The seal was a weird, cross seal. That only reaffirmed his belief that seals weren't limited to just the basic 12. New ones could be made. He sucked in a breath. _Here goes nothing..._

* * *

Kushina frowned. Sakusen was late. Very, very late. Did he forget that he had those boxes to take over to the maintenance room? Those guys were shifty folks, and if they didn't get their daily prescribed dose of sugary snacks, something may very well fail in the outpost's power supply system. Then they would start pointing fingers at _her,_ and it would just spiral downwards into a big mess. So. _Where the hell was Sakusen._

"Sorry I'm late!"

The sound of a foot kicking the door open alerted her to the arrival of her son, and before he had a chance to say anything else Kushina shoved boxes of sour candies and whatever-the-fuck those guys ate into his unprepared arms. "Go! Maintenance room! Now!" she hissed.

A muffled _mmmMMF_ came from behind the cardboard, and the pile grew short legs and ran itself out the door. Kushina leaned back and sighed. Disaster averted. Now, how could she motivate him into doing all his other chores? They were boring, but by no means was Kushina going to raise a lazy child. He would be taking care of his own responsibilities in their house, dammit, since Minato was going to be so busy. Besides, it's not like he had a way to replicate himself. Even if he did, that would be catastrophic to his developing mind.

* * *

Suzuchi-senpai glanced at him from over her glasses. "Saku-chan, shouldn't you be helping Kushina right now?"

"Nope!" the blond-haired boy grinned. "I'm done already! Just finished with the maintenance room. What can I do here?"

Well, he was certainly a fast one. The maintenance room and power plant were on the other side of the outpost, weren't they? While the place was by no means big, it still took some time, didn't it? Oh, she was getting old now, wasn't she? Kids these days, she thought with a nostalgic half-smile. So much energy.

"Well, I need you to start packing all these excess pieces of armor and the masks away. Green box for uniforms, blue for armor pieces, and white for masks. Don't forget!"

* * *

"You cannot be done already."

Mountain Man glared at him suspiciously, and he scratched the back of his head. "No, really, I am!" he said, totally not in a suspicious manner. "I'm all done with those."

"Well, then," he said, swiveling his chair around in a graceful pivot, "here's what you can do here. I've got," he pointed to a mountain of old television sets, "outdated equipment that needs to go. Dump it in the pits, let the burners take care of it. Don't breathe it in, got it?"

Sakusen nodded vigorously, hair whipping back and forth. "Yes, sir!"

Mountain Man turned back to face his paperwork, which littered his desk area. "You won't be able to take that on your own, so bring help, or take multiple trips - I don't care."

A small poof and the sound of a door slamming shut was the only answer he received. He snorted, turning back around. "Stupid kid, never listens to what... I... what?"

The pile of broken television coms had mysteriously vanished into thin air.

* * *

No one knew it, but all these events and more happened simultaneously. All at the same time, Sakusen was in multiple places.

He snickered from his viewpoint on top of the guard tower, munching on the rest of his anpan. The multiple shadow clone jutsu was easy as _heck._ It was like the clone jutsu, but... easier? Less control was needed, so all he really needed to do was shove more chakra out of his coils and not care about the amount. Well, maybe just a little. But not the fine, surgical detail he had to put into making some illusionary clones. No, shadow clones were easier.

He could feel them, they could respond, think for themselves, and it was _amazing._ Plus, they wouldn't pop as easily as illusionary clones dispelled. Only by physically harming the shadow clone enough to destabilize the chakra making it up would pop it and turn it into chakra vapor. And on the plus side, he got some back when he popped the clones. Best jutsu ever. It wasn't even that bad on his reserves. Sure, he was a little low, but not _dying_ low. And he would get it all back soon enough.

He hopped down, the gravel crunching under his feet. He ran out of the gate, shouting a quick "I'll be back" to the guard, despite his protests, and took refuge behind a tree. Close to the outpost, but far enough so that no one could see him.

Sakusen actually had no idea what would happen if multiple clones dispelled at once. He probably should have tested it, but his time was basically out. Kaa-chan would come storming the base just to find him. He didn't know if the chakra sent back was visible, or sense-able, or if there was some sort of big notice, so it was probably best to lie low before whatever would happen happened.

It was about half an hour, right? That should be enough time for everything to be done with. His clones should be hiding somewhere by now, as per his last orders to them. Something told him that his mother would probably not approve of him stealing jutsu from a protected scroll and using them. So, if he didn't want to get caught, now was the chance to dispel them and see what happened. If something did, well... he would be returning from a short walk in the woods, and have no possible way to be involved in whatever had happened. Perfect plan.

Nothing could go wrong.

Making a seal, he muttered, "Release!"

In the future, he would look back on this incident and be immensely appreciative of his lucky streak, or whatever kept his brain from immediately frying like a burnt egg.

A literal wall of chakra and memories slammed into him, disorienting him and forcing him to throw up his latest anpan. His head throbbed, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Fuck it, this was even worse than that. Or was it? The

Sakusen collapsed, and the last thing he saw before blacking out from the pain was a pair of boots, or two, or three...

* * *

The first thing he felt was the cool feeling of a damp towel placed on his forehead and over his eyes. He could hear voices, muttering in the back, and before he could raise himself up, a large hand pressed him back down.

"Easy, kid," a light voice said. "You were pretty messed up back there. What did you use? Can you tell me about it?"

He tried speaking, but the words came out garbled and confused, and he had to try again and again until he could pronounce the letters correctly.

"Used... Shadow Clones... Lots..." he managed to slur, and the voice sighed.

A deep sigh. "I thought so," it muttered. "Why is it always the stupid ones I get?" A green light filled his vision, and suddenly he was standing up. Somewhere. Was he here before?

Sakusen was standing in a corridor, lined with green and purple leaves, like ivy. Lots and lots of doors filled the hallway, and the ground was... not there. A literal abyss of blackness filled the space where the floor was supposed to be, and it took all his willpower to not cling to the ivy like a squirrel. Where the heck was this?

"This," said the voice, startling him, "is your mind." A hand ruffled his hair, and he jumped as a figure materialized out of the emptiness. He had blonde hair, and blue eyes. Blonde hair. Blue eyes.

"Are you my dad?" he blurted out without thinking. The man raised a single eyebrow, then laughed. Already, Sakusen knew the answer. He was too different, not the same shades of blue and yellow. Washed out, not as vibrant.

The man looked mildly offended. "Washed out? I'll have you know that I'm _much_ better looking than Minato." He coughed, and continued. "Yamanaka Inoichi. I was passing through with my team, and we found you on the ground. Not a pretty sight. You were completely out of it."

What was up with the mind-reading he was experiencing lately? First Okami, now a Yamanaka mind walker. Was his mind _that_ interesting?

Sakusen tried to open his mouth to say something, but the Yamanaka cut him off. "Now, I don't know how you got ahold of a kinjutsu, and I don't particularly _want_ to know either. Just know that you aren't supposed to be using that. You actually could have had a stroke and died if you had used even one more clone, so count yourself lucky."

His mouth went dry, and Sakusen didn't even know how that was possible if he was currently inside of his mind, but he swallowed and nodded. "What do we do now? Patch up the damage?"

Inoichi shook his head. "No, _I'm_ the one doing the patching. You stay here. And don't break anything." He disappeared into the gloom that was apparently his mind, and Sakusen was left alone in the corridor.

He looked around glumly. He had a weird mind. Did other people have leaves growing on the walls? Why were some purple? And why was he floating? Could he fall through? He could actually see little bits and pieces of the walls crumbling away into the abyss. No matter what mind you were in, that couldn't be safe.

 _I want a floor,_ he decided, and immediately clusters of multicolored vines shot out from the ivy, intertwining together below his feet to form a pretty, woven patterned floor. That was unexpected. But it was _his_ mind, right? So he could customize it?

"Not in the ways you might be thinking of," echoed Inoichi's voice. "The amount of influence one has over their mind is quite limited. The fact that you actually willed something else into existence is quite impressive." He rematerialized next to Sakusen. "I'm done. Let's go back. You might have a bad headache, but that's just part of the recovery. Now, wake up."

Before he could ask how, Sakusen was painfully ripped away from his brand new vine floor and stuffed back into his actual body. He winced, bringing a hand up to his head. Inoichi was right, the headache was painful. Not to mention, the whole experience did not do wonders for his mind. Some parts of his skull felt slightly more toasted than others, like the Yamanaka had taken a laser and cut away the bad portions of his brain or something. Hopefully not.

Someone peeled off the towel (now it was dried, when did that happen?) and Sakusen found himself squinting up into sharp black eyes. Not Inoichi, but he looked a little familiar. This guy looked like the pictures of some of the mercenaries he'd seen posted outside of the jail - shifty, mean-looking, with wild spiky hair. He even had the scars to match. But a smile broke out on the man's face, and suddenly he didn't seem so scary.

"Glad you're up. We got a shock when we saw you just laying there outside of the outpost. Thought it was attacked," the man said gruffly, leaning back to recline in his chair. He extended a hand. "Nara Shikaku. Nice to meet ya, kid."

Behind him, a veritable giant of a man with a mane of red hair and clad in armor with the kanji for "food" slapped on the belly appeared and pushed Shikaku's hand away, offering a bar instead. "Shikaku, the boy's tired. He should eat. Growing children need their food, after all."

Sakusen took the bar, and recognized it as the Akimichi variety. He knew who these guys were now. Yamanaka, Nara, and now Akimichi. Of course. "You guys are the Ino-Shika-Cho, aren't you?"

The Akimichi beamed, patting the boy on the back with a large hand and glancing at Shikaku. "See, I told you. We're still famous! Even this kid here knows us. I'm Akimichi Chouza, by the way," he added.

Another hand laid itself on Sakusen's shoulder, and he looked up at Inoichi, who had apparently been behind him the whole time. Creepy. "Kid's all fixed up now," he drawled. "But I have to talk to his mom about something real quick." The boy missed the three exchanging brief looks.

As if on cue, the door burst open, and Kushina ran into the room and stopped at the sight of her son. Sakusen winced, shielding his eyes. The room was pretty dark, with only a single dimmed lamp, and Kaa-chan opening the door sent a flood of light crashing in. His headache was sending him painful reminders that it still existed.

Kushina made as if to move to her son, but Shikaku deftly swept his arm out in front of Sakusen, while Chouza stood in the light's path, shielding the boy. "Sorry, Kushina, but he's still healing up. Inoichi's got something to talk about, why don't you two talk outside?" Inoichi was already escorting the woman out of the room as the Nara was talking, and the door closed on his final word. The whole altercation took less than 5 seconds.

Now _that_ was teamwork.

Chouza sighed, and gave the boy a sympathetic look. "Bright lights are pretty painful after a mind walk. We usually only expose patients to them if they have to be interrogated, you see. Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Sakusen said, removing his hands from his face. He opened the wrapper of the nutrition bar that Chouza had given him and took a bite. Hot pot flavor, one of his favorites. There was some magic going on in those Akimichi back rooms to make an energy bar taste like hot pot, but he wasn't complaining.

"So," Shikaku grunted, a gleam appearing in his beady eyes, "care to say why you were messing around with the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu? Inoichi might have skirted around that topic since he's used to keeping his patient's privacy, but I have to admit, I'm pretty curious. That jutsu was locked away in the Scroll of Sealing."

Sakusen caught the knowing tone in the man's voice, and looked up with a guilty grin, accentuated with crumbs lining the edges of his mouth. "Sorry?" he offered. Shikaku raised a single eyebrow. Did he want an explanation or something? "I, uh, borrowed it from the big scroll while no one was looking. And I used it here because I wanted to do my chores quickly."

Shikaku wore a dumbfounded look on his face, then broke out laughing and keeled over in his chair. Next to him, Chouza was doing his best to hold in chuckles. "I approve, kid," the Nara snickered, slapping a knee. "Work smart, not hard. That's the key to life."

"Shikaku!" Chouza scolded, "don't encourage him! You saw the aftereffects of what happened."

He sobered up immediately, nodding seriously. "That's right. I'm sure Inoichi told you, but try not to use that in the near future. Not until you're a few years into the academy, at the very least. You don't have the mental capacity for it. Although," he added, frowning thoughtfully, "I would have thought that the effects were more serious than this... How many clones did you use?"

Before Sakusen could answer, three quick raps on the door alerted Chouza, who quickly stood in front of Sakusen's line of vision, and the door opened and closed quickly. Inoichi appeared behind the Akimichi, followed by a nervous Kushina. She immediately knelt in front of Sakusen's bed and held his hand, looking concernedly into his eyes.

"Are you okay? Does it still hurt anywhere?" she asked, searching his face intently.

Sakusen tightened his grip on her hand and shook his head, wincing slightly from the echoing pains. Shaking was a bad idea. "I'm fine, I think. Just a headache, nothing else. And I'm a little tired, too."

In response, Kushina dropped her head on the bedsheets, sighing heavily. "Thank goodness. You have no idea how scared I was when they brought you here." She glanced up at Inoichi. "Inoichi-san here is very good at fixing injuries like yours. Tell him immediately if anything starts hurting, okay?"

He nodded, reclining against the pillow. Inoichi chose this moment to speak up. "Like I said, everything is under control now. I recommend no strenuous mental activity for the next 12 hours, just to be safe. The headaches should disappear soon after. Children's minds are resilient, so you shouldn't have any problems with recovery." He was answered by twin snores from both mother and son, and a subtle eye twitch was the only indication of his slight annoyance.

Shikaku smiled at the scene, then turned to his partner. "Hey, isn't he-"

"I know, I know," Inoichi answered. He absentmindedly propped an arm up against his other to scratch at his beard stubble. "This kid is supposed to be a veggie. Quadriplegic," he elaborated at Chouza's confused expression. "He's not supposed to be coherent, or even capable of movement."

The reasons why the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu were sealed away were simple. It forcibly divided the user's chakra into multiple segments, making it dangerous for people with low levels. A lesser known reason was because of the mental strain. Undeveloped minds couldn't handle the influx of information from multiple sources, and some just collapsed.

Which was not really a problem, Inoichi mused, because usually it wasn't a _4-year old boy_ trying to use the technique. This kid obviously had no problems with the former danger, but the latter...

"You guys remember that time that the genin tried splitting himself 15 times?" Chouza recalled somberly. Both of the other members grimaced at the memory.

"Not a pretty sight," Inoichi said, rubbing his face. The split had screwed with the chakra levels of the boy, and the shock of losing so much chakra at once, coupled with the sudden memory return, had been enough to kill the genin. He was dead before Inoichi could scour his mind, though he had a good idea of what would have awaited him had he gone in.

Utter destruction of all his mindways.

"Now, trust me when I say that this kid ain't your average kid," Shikaku started, stroking his goatee thoughtfully. "He's a lot smarter than he looks, yeah? But I read his little chore list," he produced Sakusen's crumpled list of daily errands, "and he had to make _at_ _least_ 6 of them. Add to the fact that judging from what Yamate told us, he made even _more_ of them to do whatever, that means he had maybe around 10 clones running around."

"A genius, even one like Hatake, wouldn't be able to recover from that trauma," Inoichi agreed.

Chouza hunched over, in a poor imitation of Shikaku's thinking pose. "But you found something, right? You've been a bit bothered this whole time after coming out of the mind walk."

Inoichi suppressed a smile. They were so familiar with each other to the point where the Ino-Shika-Cho almost knew their teammates better than they knew themselves. The unspoken bond had saved them more than a couple of times in previous experiences.

"That's right. You won't get this, but his mind is... old. I can't describe it very well, but it's old and it's new at the same time. And he has such a precise control over it. Very strange."

Shikaku leaned back. "Describe it for us. Do your best."

"Well, for starters, the mind usually reflects the age of the user. Shikaku, your mind is filled with young trees and a sun bright overhead. Relatively young, for a shinobi. This kid here," he gestured to the sleeping Sakusen, "has this weird purple ivy crawling all over. It's aged well. Not _old_ old, but older than it should be. The rooms and walls, on the other hand, reflect his age. Brand new."

Shikaku frowned. He liked a good puzzle, but minds were difficult to solve, and not everything in there represented a solid clue. "Have you seen this before?"

Inoichi smiled. "There's only a few, very rare cases recorded throughout Yamanaka mind walking history where that's happened."

Both Shikaku and Chouza leaned forward. "And?" they asked. "What about those cases?"

Inoichi paused dramatically. "And... nothing."

"Nothing?" they echoed.

"That's right. Nothing unusual happened to them. Their success rates as ninja were varied, and nothing was abnormal, really. Just a little more developed, a little more mature than they should have been. That's all."

Chouza folded his arms, Shikaku following suit. "How interesting," the large man murmured, casting quick glances toward the sleeping couple to make sure they didn't wake up, "he seems like a normal kid. An old soul, huh?"

Inoichi put up his hand, like he was in a classroom. "Hey guys... you know how we're on a relatively non-lethal, danger-free mission?" At Shikaku's suspicious nod, he pointed at Sakusen. "I've always wanted to study new psychological cases, and finding this kid is like a golden opportunity... how do you guys feel about some babysitting for the next few days?"

* * *

 **(A/N)**

It is very very funny. I decide to write another chapter for this story. I sit down. Prepare myself. Crack my knuckles. Grab a snack. Get ready to type. Aaaaand...

Nothing. No ideas, nothing. Whatever I try to come with, fails.

Now. Fast forward a few hours later, when I try to do actual homework. Guess whose motivation to suddenly start writing starts knocking at the door again?

I am a cursed being, doomed to being unproductive.

... I can't be the only one who does this though, right?...Right?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

* * *

"This is insane. Absolutely insane."

Inoichi slapped Shikaku's slumped back, inadvertently making him hunch over even more. "Cheer up! It's not going to be for long, anyhow. Just think of it like we're taking him on a field trip."

Although Sakusen was excited, he was slightly inclined to agree with the grumpy Nara. This wasn't a very good idea, even by his own standards. And he'd been the one to plan out a whole trip to an outpost just to follow his friend.

Inoichi had somehow managed to sweet-talk his mother and the outpost commander (whose name was Yamaji, which was scary close to his secret nickname for the man) to take him on a "field trip". Kaa-chan had been reluctant, but Yamaji seemed all too happy to let him go. Something about causing more trouble than he was worth? He would have to get food for the commander if they ever met again in Konoha as an apology.

Sakusen suspected there was some sort of ulterior motive for bringing him along. The Ino-Shika-Cho were certainly not strangers, not after what they'd done for him, so he had no reason to worry about whatever Biwako-baa-chan kept worrying over when she always reminded him to not go off with strange people. Seriously, he had an ANBU tail. There was literally no reason to worry about anything when he was inside the village.

The group was currently huddled in Sakusen's room, which they had invaded for the night. He resolved to never sleep near an Akimichi again if he could help it. Shikaku had helpfully handed him earplugs after the third time he'd woken up to Chouza's snores. That man was louder than Haori-sensei when she got mad.

"Okay, everyone listen up. Here's the plan." Inoichi traced out a path on the unfolded map set on the floor. "We follow this trail here, straight to the border. Simple. It shouldn't take more than a day and a half, tops."

"Simple plans are the best plans," Shikaku noted. "We'll stay in Formation E, since we have an escort with us. Inoichi will lead, Chouza will be second, I'll be last. Kid, you stay in the middle, between Chouza and me, alright? Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Sakusen. "Do you guys have formations from A to Z?"

The three ninja laughed. "Of course not, that's too much," Chouza chortled. "Too many makes things complicated. We only have formations up to O."

Sakusen's mouth dropped. "15 formations? That's still a lot! How do you remember all of them?" said Sakusen. He still had a lot to learn, didn't he? No way in hell would he be able to remember 15 different formations.

Shikaku waved his hand. "Experience. Now, we leave within the hour. We'll only be staying out two nights at most. Pack accordingly."

"Okay. Thank you for taking me along on your mission. Please take care of me." Sakusen bowed deeply.

"It's fine. Now get lost, kid."

As soon as the door shut, Chouza whirled on Shikaku. "You saw that, right?" he nearly shouted. "He counted from A to O in his head in like, 3 seconds! Even I couldn't do that!"

"Not that that's saying much, Chouza... you were always terrible with math." Shikaku snorted, but even that couldn't hide the sharp gleam in his eyes. "I think I know how we're going to pass the time now..."

* * *

At the gates, Kushina spent her remaining time fussing over her son. "You packed well, right? You'll only need one spare change of clothes, since it's a short trip, but remember not to pack too much - overpacking can make you heavier, and it'll be harder to fight when you're weighted down like a rock... What else? Umm... Do you have enough food for the trip? I have some extra if you need-"

"Kaa-san," Sakusen interrupted, "we have an Akimichi with us this trip. I don't think food is going to be an issue."

Kushina smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, honey. I'm just worried, y'know? You literally got back from your trip a week ago, and now you're off again... I still think they're overdoing it. Who brings a three-year-old along with them?" She huffed, obviously displeased.

Sakusen raised his hand. "Actually, I'm four now. I turned four-"

"A month and one week ago, right?" Kushina finished. She ruffled his hair. "Sorry, I forgot. I've gotten so used to telling other people that you're three years old that it just kinda stuck, y'know? I'll have to get you birthday presents to make up for all the ones I've missed once we get back to Konoha, so remind me then, okay?"

His mother kept track of his birthday, down to the week. Sakusen felt a little warmer inside. "Thanks, Kaa-san." He put on his cutesy face. "You couldn't have gotten me a cool sword from someone you beat on the battlefield, though?"

She laughed. "The thing is, I always break everything they have first, before... "beating" them. And I couldn't get you someone's head, now, could I? That would be horrible."

Both mother and son laughed, and the nearby Ino-Shika-Cho sweated nervously.

"Oi, that's a little morbid... Is that okay?" Chouza whispered.

Inoichi shrugged. "Well, it could be worse. This isn't bad at all. Although, I think we can derive his future sense of humor from this incident."

Kushina stalked over to the trio, causing them to snap to attention. "Now, you listen up here, and listen carefully," she growled. "If my boy comes back with even a single scratch on him, I'll show you just how angry I can get. Understand?" She punctuated her words with stabbing motions of her finger.

Shikaku laughed nervously, fully aware of her short temper. "Of course, Kushina. We just want to take him sightseeing, that's all. He'll be safe with us. Right, Inoichi?" The Nara not-so-discreetly elbowed said Yamanaka, causing him to yelp.

"Yes, that's right. Your son is in safe hands. Just think of it as a field trip. An educational experience. He'll learn more about the borders, and how the patrol works as well. No fighting at all, remember? It's just a delivery mission."

Kushina's eyebrow steadily rose higher with every sentence Inoichi rattled off, and she sighed exasperatedly when he was done. "Don't think I'm stupid, y'know!" The trio blinked, exchanging glances that seemed to say _When did we say that?_ "I know you're just interested in seeing how he acts. I know my son's a genius, but that doesn't mean you can pick him apart, y'know? Remember," she finished threateningly, her famous red tails swaying in the air, "one scratch! Whether it's a physical one _or_ a mental one!"

Kushina kissed Sakusen on the forehead, drew him into a big hug, and swept away. As she was about to reenter the gate to the compound, she called back over her shoulder.

"Inoichi! Your 'professional psychologist' tone is still crap! You didn't fool me for a single second!"

Sakusen took a glance at the faces of the trio and blanched. All of them had turned a pasty white.

Chouza spoke first, in a strangled tone. "She saw through the excuse... not that it was really strong in the first place, but still. How terrifying."

Inoichi wilted like a dying flower. "She had to kick my self-confidence like that, didn't she? I spent years learning how to talk like that."

Shikaku took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it. "I think," he mumbled around the stick, "we should change our formation. Remember the one we did to guard the daimyo?"

Sakusen tilted his head. "Isn't that a bit too much?"

"Trust me, kid," Shikaku said, taking a puff, "nothing is ever too much when dealing with women like those. I have one at home, I would know." He exhaled a cloud of smoke. "How troublesome."

* * *

Sundown came surprisingly quickly. That might have been due to the fact that Sakusen wasn't dead focused on getting to where he needed to be, meaning that there was time to actually admire the views. Time seemed to pass by much quicker when he was having fun.

Chouza had somehow managed to produce a pan that was almost as tall as him while his back was turned, and was in the midst of making some sort of stew from their rations. Inoichi was making the fire, and Shikaku was rummaging around in his jounin vest pocket.

"Found it," grunted the Nara, pulling out a tiny scroll that was flecked with bits of gray ash. Gross. Was that his secret cigarette trash can or something?

When Shikaku had disposed of his cigarette earlier during the day, the man had fixed Sakusen with a glare so severe that the boy had been momentarily paralyzed. "Don't ever smoke in the future. And if you do, don't say you learned it from me. Got it? I don't need any more issues than I already have."

In the present, reading into Sakusen's slightly disgusted gaze, Shikaku dusted off the scroll and unrolled it, revealing a complex design inked onto the surface.

"Sometimes, there'll be missions where I can't leave any trace of our presence behind. So I just stash the butts in here. Makes a little mess, but it's better than being captured. Now, this is what I wanted to show you."

Sakusen was tempted to voice his opinion on the smell of the cigarettes probably being more noticeable than the finished blunt, but he was distracted by the puff of smoke that suddenly burst from the inscription. When the smoke cleared, a box had appeared out of nowhere.

Like _magic_.

Sakusen's mouth dropped open, and the trio burst out laughing.

"The looks on their faces when that happens!" Chouza was chortling so hard that he nearly dropped his cutlery. Also summoned from somewhere. Definitely not a from scroll, because he wouldn't have missed a big cloud like that.

Inoichi was grinning widely. "First time seeing a sealing scroll, huh?"

Sakusen was slightly spellbound. "I've never seen one before," he admitted. "So you can put stuff in them? Where does it go? There's no way the scroll can hold a box that big."

Shikaku lifted the top off the box, revealing pentagonal pieces with characters etched on them. "It goes in a pocket dimension, or so the story goes."

"Does it only work on paper? What does all the writing mean? How much can you put in there?" Sakusen asked relentlessly.

"I don't know about the last two so much," Inoichi said while propping his chin up with his hand, "but I remember this one time where we were fighting against the Iwagakure sealing team. They ran out of explosive tags, so they started putting explosion formulas on rocks and throwing them at us. We couldn't differentiate between those and the regular ones, so we had to retreat."

The Yamanaka didn't miss the small flinch Sakusen made when he mentioned Iwagakure, and winced internally. It was understandable. He'd almost died to a ninja from Iwa, after all. Maybe his spur-of-the-moment decision wasn't such a smart one, considering that their destination happened to have a large amount of Iwa nin on hand. But there wouldn't be any fighting. They would be fine.

Shikaku raised his hands, as if to protect himself from the next onslaught of questions. "You'll have to ask your mother about those more, or the Hokage. Your mother is the foremost sealing expert of Konoha. She can teach you a lot more than we can. What we _can_ do, though, is teach you shogi. C'mere."

Reluctantly tearing his eyes off of the formula, Sakusen scooted over to Shikaku's side. The Nara promptly slapped a thick manual down in his lap.

"Read it, and commit the whole thing to memory. I'll give you, uhh," he scratched his goatee, "10 minutes. Go."

This time, Chouza actually did drop his knife mid-chop. "Shikaku, you can't just give him a _manual_ on how to play shogi and expect him to understand everything!" he protested.

"You should probably help him out a little," agreed Inoichi, fighting back an exasperated smile. "He's still very young... very _very_ young. At least give him a little tutorial."

"Nonsense," Shikaku said, waving his hand. "He's doing just fine. Look at him."

And indeed, Sakusen was already completely absorbed into the book. He didn't know he was doing a _game._ Games were fun. And this game looked a lot more fun than what the other kids his age seemed to be interested in.

He completely ignored the escalating argument of the adults nearby, drowning out the sounds of Inoichi proclaiming his opinion as a psychologist and pediatrician to be better than what Shikaku thought his _obviously_ superior intellect contributed to the matter at hand. Every piece was so interesting!

A cry of "Chouza, the food's burning!" abruptly ended the argument as the Akimichi ran over to the fire to mourn the remains of the beef skewers. Both Shikaku and Inoichi glanced nervously at each other. To ruin an Akimichi's dinner, even if it wasn't directly their fault, was to ask for death, after all.

A minute later, all the adults, both Inoichi and Shikaku fighting with each other while each being held in a headlock by Chouza, were stopped with the sound of a book slamming shut. "Done!" Sakusen exclaimed. "Can we play now?" They all glanced at him incredulously.

"It's been," Shikaku managed to free his arm from his side to check his watch, "5 and a half minutes since you started. Are you sure you read everything?"

"Yes," Sakusen asserted impatiently, wiggling from side to side. "Let's play!"

Shikaku poofed out of existence in between Chouza's massive bicep, and the real Shikaku dropped down from the trees above. He'd switched with a Shadow Clone the moment he'd sensed that something bad was going to happen. Inoichi fixed him with a deadpan stare, which he pointedly looked away from.

Sitting himself down on the other side of the board, which Sakusen had set up during his self-teaching session, Shikaku gestured to the pieces.

"You move first," he said.

Inoichi managed to squirm out of Chouza's other arm and went to clean up the burnt mess at the fire.

"Sorry for distracting you," he mumbled. "I'll help you cook. This should take at least an hour. Shikaku will probably have to teach the kid the whole game. There's no way he understood everything from just reading the manual."

Chouza simply agreed with a nod of his head, giving a last sorrowful look at the skewers, before heading back to start from square one. At least the stew wasn't ruined.

* * *

The game took 20 minutes to finish. Which sounded like a lot of time, but was actually relatively fast for a shogi game. Average shogi games varied from 30 minutes to over an hour, so he didn't do that bad. Although he suspected that Shikaku went easy on him for his first time.

That aside, shogi was really fun. And hard. All of the pieces were difficult to memorize, and the promoted variants of the pieces didn't make it any easier. His mistake for the first game, as Shikaku pointed out, was that he was too focused on offense and trying to take pieces.

When his King was captured, he quickly reset the board and demanded, "Again!"

In his second game, he was so focused on building an impenetrable castle for his king that he didn't notice Shikaku moving pieces around to draw out each one. By the time he was done, there was nowhere for him to move.

With Shikaku's setup, every strategy he'd tried to employ was easily countered. Like Shikaku knew what he was thinking. But with the sudden increase in stock of mind-readers lately, he wouldn't be surprised if Shikaku had some form of ESP.

"Don't be so one-dimensional," the Nara chided. "Mix it up a little. It'll be too easy for someone to see what you're trying to do if you just focus on one thing at a time. Multitask."

In his third game, he threw in everything he'd learned from the last two games. Shikaku respected his opening game, allowing him to quickly set up a Yagura castle in the corner. He initiated midgame by advancing his Silver General up.

He had at least four different strategies that he tried to implement over the course of the game, but only one got even slightly close to succeeding: a textbook invasion called Climbing Silver, which he had put a slight twist on by dropping the pieces into play. Shikaku had blinked a little in surprise when realizing how close Sakusen had come to breaking his formation, then shrugged

"Eh, you almost got me there. You did a better job picking and choosing strategies. Climbing Silver isn't really one that Konoha players prefer, so that caught me off guard."

Sakusen tilted his head. "Why not?"

Shikaku leaned back on his elbows. "Konoha ninja place more emphasis on teamwork than individual skill. Climbing Silver, while it's a good tactic, requires that you use a pawn as a shield for the silver general, so that it can break through enemy lines. Sacrificial plays aren't really what we prefer, unless it's to guard the next generation. But war is war, and you use what you have to to win."

Sakusen smiled confidently. "Well, don't talk like the game is over. I'm just breaking through your defenses now! I have a chance!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, kid," the man drawled lazily, "but it _is_ over. Checkmate."

A final click of a piece sealed his fate, and Sakusen wailed dramatically.

"I was so close to breaking your defenses, too," he groaned.

"You'll get to do that one day. Just not today. You've already improved a lot since you first started. You even lasted for almost 40 minutes this time," Shikaku noted with a slightly impressed tone.

Sakusen sat up straight. "How long have we been playing?" he asked. It was much darker than he remembered it being.

Inoichi's voice floated from across their camp. "Are you guys finished now? The food's going to get cold if you don't eat soon."

The mention of food summoned vicious growls from Sakusen's stomach, and Chouza came flying over with a speed that belied his great size.

"Shikaku, you've been starving him this whole time! Kids like him need to eat, you know!" The Akimichi plucked Sakusen up and away from the shogi board and plopped him down on a rock next to Inoichi. He shoved a large bowl of food into the boy's lap. "Here, I made a hearty beef stew. It's very good for you. Eat up!"

Saksen had to force himself not to drool, because the smell that was filling the air was positively heavenly.

Not all heroes wore capes.

While he dug in, Inoichi wandered over to where Shikaku was, still sitting by the fire in from of the chess board.

"You should see the kid eat," Inoichi said. "He eats like an Akimichi. Chouza's restaurants are gonna love him." It seemed to be a common trait among Uzumaki to be able to scarf down food faster than it could come. And Akimichi restaurants delivered dishes at a breakneck pace, enough to be able to keep up with the speed of Kushina's eating. One could usually find her there if she wasn't at her favorite ramen joint.

Shikaku hummed pensively. "Really."

He sighed. The pineapple head had a bad habit of waving people off when he was in the middle of a particularly deep line of thought. "You're not even listening, are you?"

The Nara turned to face him. "Of course I am. What do you mean?"

"You have your thinking face on. You know, when you scrunch up your eyebrows and start looking like you're planning to kill someone. That face."

He immediately protested. "I do not. If I really wanted to kill someone, I wouldn't be looking like I wanted to kill them. That would tip everybody off and ruin the surprise."

The Yamanaka snorted. "Alright, alright. I'll bite. How was he? Was he any good?"

Shikaku shrugged. "I guess. He was definitely better than what you thought he'd be. He had all of the pieces memorized. Moved without thinking first, though. He got better at strategizing over the games."

"And?" he pressed. "There's got to be more, or else you wouldn't be sitting here like this."

"It's nothing. He just..." There was a pregnant pause. "He has a very steep learning curve. The kid stumbled a little in the beginning, but by the last game he was going pretty strong. It was like he was picking up an old skill. It's a little scary how good he was for someone who just learned the game."

"And for someone that's just four years old," Inoichi added.

Shikaku shook his head. "I've since learned not to apply age restrictions to him. If you treat him like others his age, you're making a mistake. He's wise beyond his years. You're taking notes on him?"

He nodded. "When he's not looking. It's such a rare chance to be able to spend the entirety of a couple of days with a kid like him that I just couldn't pass it up, you know? Still, he's scarily mature. Even more so than I remember Hatake being."

This was a little worrying. Such precocious mental development, while not bad per se, was a little unusual and had certain social drawbacks. Apparently, Sandaime-sama had gone out of his way to secure the boy a friend in the Uchiha clan because he didn't seem to like playing around with the other kids at the playground. In addition, the trauma of being in his first battle would probably stay with him for a while, even if he managed to hide it. Well-developed minds were sometimes such a hassle to deal with.

Shikaku barked out a laugh. "Well, Hatake was a brat. Plain and simple. Nothing more to it. This one's something else. I feel like we should be doing more for him."

"Well, we can now say that we've taught him shogi, at least. Kushina will be happy about that." He snapped his fingers. "Speaking of which, he's probably going to ask to learn sealing from her as well. You saw his face when you opened the sealing scroll."

Shikaku smirked. "Uzumaki blood runs through those veins. Most definitely. Do you think that we're looking at our next sealing expert?"

The blond started cleaning up the pieces on the board. "I say that he becomes the best seal-user in Konoha by the time he's 20. 1000 ryo on that."

"I say by the time he's 16. And my bet is 5000 ryo." He lifted the lid of the box, letting Inoichi dump the pieces inside.

"Don't you think that's too much? Sealing is a hard art. Kushina is an Uzumaki, and she's barely an expert. You know how well she took to the sealing arts. And she had Uzumaki Mito as a tutor."

"Don't underestimate the future generation. Remember, the next generation will-"

"-surpass the previous one. Yes, I remember. Sandaime-sama says it all the time. I still think it's by the time he's 20, though. I'll stick with that bet."

"Prepare to lose, loser."

"We'll see."

* * *

By the time the team had made it to the edge of the border, Sakusen had grown quite a fondness for the outdoors. Something he really couldn't explain. He felt right, at home, out in the forest. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the fresh, loamy smell of the dirt and the warm sunlight on his face.

"There it is," said Shikaku, He pointed in front of them, where the forest boundary seemed to thin out. "Destination reached."

Sakusen could only gape as they escaped the cover of the trees and stood out in the open. The sight he beheld easily ranked top among the strangest things he'd ever seen.

It seemed to him that he was standing on the edge of three different worlds. To his left, a vast expanse of sand could be seen, which could only have been the beginnings of the desert of the Land of Wind. To his right, huge rock formations littered the ground, with stones everywhere. The Land of Earth.

Maybe the strangest thing was how the three biomes were divided. Like Kami-sama had taken a giant katana to smite the ground with, a twenty-foot-wide chasm was ripped through the ground, splitting into two where he stood to separate the individual lands like humongous pie slices. The chasm seemed to go on for miles, both to the sides and downward, and he couldn't see the ends of either one.

"Amazing," he muttered. "Is this natural? Or is it man-made?"

"Some say that the formation is natural, a product of this continent's shifting plates," Shikaku said. "But most from the Shodai era say that the original Kage used their powers to mark the boundaries of their territory. Personally, that's what I believe too."

"How is that even possible?" Sakusen breathed. To have enough power to be able to terraform the land to this extent was a terrifying thought. He couldn't even begin to think of how much chakra it would take to use jutsu of this extent.

"In wars, these are important keystone points. That's why when Kannabi Bridge was destroyed a couple of months ago, Iwagakure knew the war was almost done for. Supply routes like those are essential for maintaining stocks."

Sakusen nodded. It made sense. If you couldn't supply your soldiers, then sooner or later they would run out of necessary materials. And by controlling those areas, you could choose how far in you wanted to advance. Obviously, Iwagakure was not very proficient in guarding their key points, if the fact that a single team from Konoha was able to destroy the bridge was any indication. Or maybe they were just exhausted because of the war effort.

Shikaku checked his watch, frowning slightly. "I hope we're not late," he said under his breath. "There might be some time for the border patrol to wait for backup if it comes to that, but I think we should be fine." Sakusen had no idea what that meant.

Chouza nudged his team members. "Look sharp, we have incoming," he warned.

Sakusen looked up and froze as he recognized the uniforms that were starting to appear. Red headbands, brown flak jackets.

 _Iwagakure._

A large squad of Iwa ninja, presumably the border patrol, were starting to materialize from behind the rocks. The leader was a large man with rippling, muscle-bound arms. That seemed to be an ongoing theme with Iwa ninja. Big muscled brutes. Everywhere. The Iwa jounin planted himself firmly at the edge of his boundary.

"Who goes there? Speak your business!" he bellowed.

Sakusen watched as Shikaku retrieved a scroll from his pouch and tossed it over the divide. It sailed straight into the leader's outstretched hand.

"Those are the terms for the peace treaty. Deliver them to Tsuchikage-sama!" Shikaku called out. He was a different man than before now. Hardened, with a sharp glare that seemed like it could pierce stone. Dangerous.

The Iwa leader sneered, a manic grin stretching across his face. "There's no need for that. We'll give you your answer right here!" The whole group bristled, and gleaming kunai appeared in their hands. Sakusen's heart caught in his throat, and he glanced around nervously. Was there going to be a fight? Judging from the trio's expressions, they hadn't been expecting this either.

The leader noticed Sakusen and immediately narrowed his eyes in recognition. "You..." he growled.

Inoichi stepped protectively in front of the boy and spoke in a mild tone. "We thought it would do some good to bring my son out for sightseeing. Obviously, it doesn't seem to be going as planned, but it doesn't matter. By the time we all return home, we'll have seen many sights. It's up to you on how much you'd like him to see."

Sakusen caught the subtle threat in Inoichi's words. The man had just implied that regardless of what happened, the whole Ino-Shika-Cho plus stowaway would all be returning home. And those weren't just puffs of hot air coming out of his mouth. The trio was actually that good, and chances were, the border patrol probably knew it as well.

But why had he lied about being his son? Sakusen opened his mouth, then quickly closed it. Inoichi lied for a reason, and it was probably a good one, so he didn't want to expose him. They _could_ pass off for father and son, if you squinted hard enough.

The leader still didn't look convinced, and was about to say something when Sakusen felt a tingle on his senses. He perked up at the same time as a weasel-ly looking Chuunin from the Iwa border patrol. Obviously the sensor from their side as well.

He'd unconsciously been circulating chakra and pulsing it in the waves that characterized the sensing technique. On any other occasion, he would have cheered, because getting to the point where you started sensing without even knowing it was the beginning mark of a true sensor.

But he was more concerned with the massive wave of signatures popping up on his invisible radar from the Suna side.

Sakusen looked sharply to the left, as did everyone else, and watched in mute horror as sandy wraiths began rising out of the desert sand of the Land of Wind. They shook the sand off, revealing themselves to be ninja from Sunagakure. Easily identifiable by their beige flak jackets and turbans, they lined the dunes in a formation that easily outnumbered both the Ino-Shika-Cho and the Iwa squadron combined twice over.

Sakusen tightened his left hand around the handle of his wakizashi, feeling the surge of killing intent rise in the air. This was not what he was thinking of when he'd been promised a "safe, danger-free" mission.

His vision sharpened with alarming clarity, and he inhaled deeply. Time seemed to slow down again, and Sakusen got a strong sense of déjà vu. If there was going to be a fight, at the very least he wouldn't be a burden.

A golden plume of sand erupted from the ground in the middle of the Suna forces, scaring him out of his thought process. He looked a little closer, narrowing his eyes. The sand was unusally... shiny. Like those bottles with golden glitter inside that made a mess everywhere. When the sparkles dissipated, a stern-faced man was standing in the center of the blast zone, with his arms crossed.

"Yondaime Kazekage!" the Iwa leader stuttered out.

Next to him, Shikaku exhaled. "Rasa-sama is here."

Sakusen nearly fell over. This was Rasa of the Gold Dust? He'd heard stories of how the Kazekage commanded gold dust with his Magnet Release that swept entire armies away in the desert. This man certainly didn't look like a Kage. He was almost nondescript, wearing black clothes with mesh underneath, with a small canister attached to his hip. Where was his cool hat?

"These lands are Sunagakure's lands," he announced chillingly, and the air temperature seemed to drop a couple of degrees. "If you fight here, we will be forced to intervene." He fixed the full intensity of his wide-eyed stare onto both sides.

For a moment, it looked like the Iwa squadron was going to retreat. But then a gruff voice sounded out from behind them.

"What the hell is going on here? Report!"

"Shit," Shikaku hissed uncharacteristically. "We were late."

Now Sakusen understood. Border patrols had a set schedule to keep, and a set path to take. Shikaku must have wanted to reveal themselves to a border patrol that was just passing by them, so that they would have the maximum amount of time to deliver the message before the next patrol came by. If they arrived late, the border patrol that had already passed could be able to sense them and backtrack, which took time. That meant less time to talk, and a greater chance that reinforcements could stumble upon them. In the undesired situation that there would be a confrontation, to be early would give them the best conditions for a fight.

In other words, this was literally a worst-case scenario situation. An impending fight, between not two, but _three_ countries, and their opponents both had a lot more shinobi than they did.

Sometimes Sakusen wondered if it was because of his luck that things like this happened.

The Iwa squadron parted down the middle to make way for a man that was even bigger, meatier, and more muscled than the leader. He had a bulbous nose, with a prominent jaw that stuck out like a bulldog's. His biceps were the size of watermelons.

"K-Kitsuchi-sama," the leader attempted to say casually, "w-we were just passing by, and this group was causing a disturbance, and-"

The aforementioned Kitsuchi's eyes were panning around the area while ignoring his blubbering subordinate. They settled on Sakusen, who returned his gaze semi-evenly, for a brief moment before moving to the Kazekage.

"You picked a fight," Kitsuchi rumbled at last, "not with just the Ino-Shika-Cho, but the Kazekage as well. After _explicit_ orders to not instigate new incidents."

What? He didn't want a fight?

"P-Please, Kitsuchi-sama, it's all just a misunderstand-"

"Idiot!" he roared as he raised a fist. "Shinobi of Iwa do _not_ make excuses!" The already monstrously large fist was encased in rock after two quick hand seals, and everyone watched as the leader of the border patrol was effortlessly smashed into the ground with a single punch. The rock casing broke away, and Kitsuchi turned to face the representatives from the two countries, dusting off his hands.

"Apologies, gentlemen, Kazekage-sama," he said, nodding to each side in turn. "I hope my ninja didn't cause too much of a ruckus."

"No harm done," said Shikaku mildly, seemingly unperturbed by the potential disaster they had just avoided. "Just make sure that scroll that the leader was holding isn't too squashed, and deliver that to your father. We'll be on our way, then."

Chouza put a hand on Sakusen's back to steer him in front of the group as they turned to leave, when Kitsuchi's firm voice stopped them.

"Wait."

Shikaku turned back resignedly, as if he knew what was coming next. "Is there something that you need, shinobi-san?" The distant way he referred to the man did not go unnoticed. A subtle reminder that all of them were ninja that had their own secrets. It didn't appear to affect Kitsuchi.

"Who is that child?" he asked, pointing a finger straight at the boy. There was a calculating look in the man's eye that Sakusen never thought he would see on the face of an Iwa ninja. Maybe they weren't all dumb.

"He looks rather familiar, wouldn't you say?" the large man continued. Sakusen felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck. Was today "Investigate Random Kids Day" or something like that? Because he was getting a lot of interest that he didn't want. Even the Kazekage appeared to be listening intently.

Inoichi rested a hand on top of his messy hair. "My son. He is of no importance. We'll be taking our leave now, if you don't mind."

* * *

Shikaku almost sighed in relief when nothing else was said. They would be free to leave, and he was more than happy to leave this nest of troublesome situations behind.

Of course, that's where things had to go wrong.

"Hang on," Sakusen blurted out. The trio's eyes widened as he dashed back to the edge of the precipice. If he blew his cover, Iwa actually might not let them go without a fight. The son of the Yellow Flash would be the ultimate prize for an Iwa ninja.

"Wait, Sakusen-!" Shikaku attempted to call out, but the kid beat him to the punch.

"I killed one of your ninja!"

There was complete silence for a couple of seconds.

Shikaku resisted the urge to do an impression of a dying fish. He was going to _kill_ Inoichi when this was over, if they weren't already dead by then. This was very bad. Noticing the looks the Iwa ninja were giving each other, the Yamanaka began slowly inching towards Sakusen to be able to grab him and run if needed.

"He was a little short, and he was with this guy that had a big silver hammer. My friend killed that one. He's a couple of months older than me," Sakusen added with a hand on his chin.

 _Well,_ Shikaku thought miserably, _there goes all chances of 'danger-free,' straight out the window._ The kid was actually trying to get them killed. What was he thinking inside that head of his, provoking literally the whole side of Iwa? Was he _gloating?_

And then, unexpectedly, Sakusen bowed deeply. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to."

One day, Shikaku was going to have to figure out the enigma that was Namikaze Sakusen. Literally nothing about him was predictable.

Kitsuchi raised a single thick eyebrow, then sighed.

"Don't be. This is war. People die. He died doing his duty, you lived doing yours. And there's nothing we can do to change that."

Sakusen tried to reach for words, but found that he didn't have anything else to say, so he just nodded and ran back to the stunned group. Together, they disappeared into the forest until their figures were swallowed up by the leaves.

The group ran in relative silence for some time, until Inoichi broke it by speaking with a strained grin.

"See, I _told_ you the kid would be an interesting-"

"You shut your damn mouth," Shikaku hissed, whacking his blond teammate upside the head. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll take the next two weeks off, and spend that time drinking _so_ much that I'll completely forget that this whole thing happened. And we will never, _ever_ speak of this incident again."

The thought of an angry redhead finding out what possibly could have transpired prompted the other two to agree.

Sakusen tilted his head. "Did I do something?"

Kitsuchi reached down and plucked the scroll from the unconscious Jounin's hand, storing it in a pouch for safekeeping. Hefting the man over his shoulder, he took a last glance back at the Kazekage and his troops.

"If that's all, we'll be going as well. There's a peace treaty to sign."

The Kazekage spoke up, halting Kitsuchi in his tracks. "He wasn't the Yamanaka's son, was he."

Kitsuchi paused for a moment. "Most likely not. I have suspicions, but that's all they are. Suspicions. Children seem to be getting more powerful these days, though, eh?"

"Indeed," the Kazekage agreed. "My apologies for keeping you here longer than necessary. Keep your interactions civil when they take place on my border."

The Iwa ninja inclined his head. "Goodbye, Kazekage-sama."

The border patrol, coupled with reinforcements, walked in silence over the barren cliffs until one decided to speak.

"Kitsuchi-sama, do you think that boy is really-?"

"We don't know, and we won't assume until we know," Kitsuchi spoke with finality.

"Even so," another said, "to kill one of ours at such a young age is an insult to our forces. Konoha will eventually parade this boy over our heads. What do we do?"

Kitsuchi smiled, not unpleasantly. "The boy is interesting. He's bold. I like that. I'll respect him, regardless of his heritage. My daughter is of age to begin her own training. I think we'll match their prodigies against one of ours."

* * *

(A/N)

I'm so so so so tired... I had the chapter all done, but the servers decided to stop working, so I had to redo some parts of it. If you've ever written a story, and something happened so that you had to rewrite what you wrote from memory, you'll know that it's one of the most demoralizing things in the world.

Anyways, I feel like I'm moving pretty fast. Some feedback on that would be nice. I believe that a good story has a fine balance between actual content and filler. If it's too much content, then the story feels like you're moving through at a Roadrunner pace. You know those stories. I don't want this one to be like that.

I breached the 1000 views level with the last chapter, so I'm hoping to get up to 1500 for this, as well as some reviews. Feedback/criticism is greatly appreciated. Thank you to all of you who have said nice things about my starter story! Seeing those really makes my day. Drop a review if you like the story!


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